rlo--ah! beautiful! beautiful! Does she not seize them as her own?"
"I put my neck in a noose no longer for any man but myself--surely not
for a woman!"

Then it was that the man Carlo burst into a tirade in his native speech,
and under cover of his loud talk Ruth motioned her chum to creep back up
the stairway, and she followed.

A sudden disquieting thought came to her. The rain was growing less.
Suppose Tom should come abruptly into the house? He might get into
trouble with these ruffians.

She whispered this thought to Helen, and her friend was panic-stricken
again. "We must warn Tom--oh, we _must_ warn him somehow!" she gasped.

"Surely we will," declared the girl from the Red Mill. "Now, careful how
you step. A creaking board might give us away."

They crept across the upper chamber to the rear of the house. Through
another room they went, until they could look out of a broken window
upon the sheds. There was Master Tom standing before the shed (the
machine was hidden), wiping his hands upon a piece of waste, and looking
out upon the falling rain.

He saw the girls almost instantly, and opened his mouth to shout to
them, but Ruth clapped her own hand to her lips and motioned with the
other for him to be silent. Tom understood.

He looked more than surprised--not a little startled, in fact.

"What will he think?" murmured Helen. "He's so reckless!"

"Leave it to me," declared Ruth, leaning out of the window into the
still falling rain.

She caught the boy's eye. He watched her motions. There was built at
this end of the house an outside stairway, and although it was in bad
repair, she saw that an agile fellow like Tom could mount the steps
without any difficulty.

Pointing to this flight, she motioned him to come by that means to their
level, still warning him by gesture to make no sound. The boy understood
and immediately darted across the intervening space to the house.

Ruth knew there was no dining-room window from which the ruffians
downstairs could see him. And they had made no move as far as she had
heard.

She left Helen to meet Tom when he came in through the sagging door at
the top of the outside flight of stairs, and tiptoed back into that room
where they had been frightened by the bat.

It was directly over the dining-room. The same chimney was built into
each room. This thought gave Ruth's active mind food for further
reflection.

The rumble of the men's voices continued from below.