you see," he concluded.

"Say! you're a cool one," declared Tom, with growing admiration.

"But you ought not to be loafing about, sleeping anywhere, and without
employment," said Helen, primly.

Roberto's black eyes sparkled. "Why does the little missy say I should
work?" he demanded. "There is no need. I return to my people, perhaps.
There I curry horses and fill the water pails for the women, and go with
my uncle to the horse-fairs where he trades, or be under my
grandmother's beck and call--the grandmother whom I tell you is a miser.
But I never have money with them, and why should I work for it
elsewhere?"

"To get good clothes, and good food, and pay your way everywhere,"
suggested Tom.

Roberto laughed again. He spread out his strong hands. "These keep me
from day to day," he said. "But money burns a hole in my pocket. Or,
would you have me like my grandmother? She hoards every penny-piece, and
then gloats over her money-box, by the firelight, when the rest of the
camp is asleep. Oh, I see her!"

CHAPTER V

A PROPHECY FULFILLED

This queer youth interested Ruth Fielding and her friends, the Cameron
twins, very much. Roberto was not naturally talkative, it seemed, for he
soon dropped into silence and it was hard to get aught out of him but
"Yes" and "No." At first, however, he had been excited, and he told them
a great deal of his life with the tribe and along the pleasant country
roads.

The cities Roberto could not bear. "There is no breath left in them--it
is used up by so many," he explained. He did not eschew work because he
was lazy, it seemed; but he saw no use in it.

Clothing? Money? Rich food? Other things that people strive for in the
main? They were nothing to Roberto. He could sleep under a haystack,
crunch a crust of bread, and wear his garments until they fell off him
in rags.

But he knew the woods and fields as nobody but a wild boy could. Every
whistle and note of every bird was as familiar to him as his own
Tzigane speech; and he could imitate them with exactness.

He delighted his new friends, as the car rumbled along. He soon stopped
talking much, as I have said, but he answered their multitude of
questions, and did not seem to mind being cross-questioned about the
life of the Gypsies.

The auto party stopped soon after noon to lunch. It was Roberto who
pointed out the spring of clear, cold water for which they searched. He
had been over this road before and, it see