y brothers, they will kill him
if he does that. He is to marry me, we are betrothed. You do not know
where he is? You would like to find your friend?"

"I must, Lolla."

"Then I will help you, if you will help me. Will you?"

Lolla looked intently at Bessie, as if she were trying to tell from her
eyes whether she really meant what she said.

"Oh, I wish I knew whether you are good; whether you speak the truth,"
cried the gypsy girl, passionately. "That other girl, your friend. She
wants my John. So--"

Bessie, serious as the situation was, could not help laughing.

"Listen, Lolla," she said. "You mustn't think that. Dolly--that's my
friend--thinks John is good looking, perhaps, but she hasn't even
thought of marrying anyone yet, oh, for years. She's too young.
We don't get married as early as you. So you may be sure that if John
has her, all she wants is to get away and get back to her friends."

Lolla's eyes lighted with relief.

"That is good," she said. "Then I will help, for that is what I want,
too. I do not want her to live in the tribe, and to be with us. You are
sure John has taken her?"

Then Bessie told her of the face they had seen in the flashlight, and of
how Dolly had been spirited away from the camp fire afterward. And as
she spoke, she was surprised to see that Lolla's eyes shone, as if she
were delighted by the recital.

"Why, Lolla, you look pleased!" said Bessie. "As if you were glad it had
happened. How can that be; how can you seem as if you were happy about
it?"

Lolla blushed slightly.

"He is my man," she said, simply. "He is strong and brave, do you not
see? If he were not brave he would not dare to act so. He is a fine
man. If I were bad, he would beat me. And he will beat anyone who is not
good to me. Of course, I am glad that he was brave enough to act so,
though I did not want him to do it."

Bessie laughed. The primitive, elemental idea that was expressed in
Lolla's words was beyond her comprehension, and, in fact, a good many
people older and wiser than Bessie do not understand it.

But Lolla did not mind the laugh. She did not understand what was in
Bessie's mind; what she had said seemed so simple to her that it
required no explanation. And now her mind was bent entirely upon the
problem of getting Dolly back to her friends, in order that John might
turn back to her and forget the American girl whose appeal to him had
lain chiefly in the fact that she was so different f