us
early, have tracked him down, and, in the moment before he had
recognized Lolla, Bessie saw him quail, while his face whitened, so that
Bessie knew he was afraid.

That knowledge, somehow, comforted her vastly. It removed at once some
of the formidable quality which John had acquired in her eyes when he
stole Dolly after the fright that he must have had when the flashlight
powder exploded, almost in his face. But Bessie remembered that he had
plucked up his courage after that scare; the chances were that he would
do so again now.

But, if Bessie was afraid of the kidnapper, Lolla was not. She rose, and
faced him defiantly. Bessie thought there was something splendid about
the gypsy girl, and she wondered why John, with such a girl ready and
anxious to marry him, had been diverted from her by Dolly, charming
though she was.

"I have come to save you, John," said Lolla. "Where is the American girl
you stole from her friends!"

John started, evidently surprised by Lolla's knowledge of what he had
done, and said something, sharply, in the gypsy tongue, which Bessie, of
course, could not understand. Her question, it was plain, had
frightened, as well as startled him; but it had also made him very
angry. Lolla, however, did not seem to mind his anger. She faced him
boldly, without giving ground, although he had moved toward her with a
threatening gesture of his uplifted hand.

"Hit me, if you will," she said. "I am not your wife yet, but when I am
it will be your right to strike me if you wish. But I know what you have
done. I know, too, that the Americans know it. Do you think you can
escape from these woods without being caught?"

John stared at her angrily.

"I am going now to the camp," he said. "If. they come looking for news
of the girl, they will find me there, and plenty to swear that I have
been there all this night, and so could not have done what they charge.
My tribe will help me; it is my right to call upon it for help."

"You forget me," said Lolla, dangerously. "I will swear that I saw you
here, where I came to look for you because you had stayed away from the
camp all the night. And when I tell my brothers, what will they swear?"

Again the man muttered something in the gypsy-tongue, but under his
breath. When he spoke aloud to Lolla it was in English.

"They are Barlomengri; they will support me. They will never let the
policemen take me away. They are my brothers--"

"Do you think you can ji