to keep on with his wicked plan to steal my
friend after such a warning," Bessie went on sternly. "But his bravery
will do him no good. There is a spirit looking after us. It made the
fire that frightened him, and the next time he will not only see the
fire; he will feel it, too."

Now she looked not only at Lolla, who seemed shaken, but at Peter, who
was staring at her as if fascinated. Evidently he, too, had heard of the
strange fire. Bessie had reckoned on the probability, that seemed almost
a certainty, that John would not have been able to explain, even to
himself, the nature of the flashlight explosion. And evidently she was
right. Then she took another chance, guessing at what she thought John
would probably have said to explain the fire.

"I know what he told you," she said slowly. "He said that the fire came
from a spirit that was guiding him, and was trying to help him. But he
only said that because he did not understand. It meant just the
opposite; that it would be better for him to go home, and forget the
wicked plot he had thought of."

Peter seemed to be weakening, but Lolla tossed her head again.

"Are you a baby? Do you think that is true?" she said to him. "Don't you
see that she is only trying to frighten you, as she did with the knife?"

"Indeed I am not," said Bessie, earnestly. "I am not angry with you, any
more than I am afraid of you now. If you stay here something dreadful
will happen to you both. You would not like to go to prison, would you,
and stay there all through this summer, and the next winter, and the
summer of next year, when you might be traveling the road with your
brothers?"

"Make them keep quiet, Peter," cried Lolla, furiously. "She is quite
right There is danger here, but it comes from her friends. She thinks
that if she can fool us into letting her talk, they may pass by and hear
her voice."

"You keep quiet," said Peter, doggedly, evidently deciding that, this
time, he could safely obey Lolla's orders, and quite ready to do so. "If
you make any more noise I will--"

He left the sentence uncompleted, but a savage gesture showed what he
meant. He had a stout stick, and this he now swung with a threatening
air.

Bessie had hoped to work on the superstitious nature of the gypsy man,
and to frighten him, perhaps, if she had good luck, into letting her go
off with Dolly. But Lolla's interference had put that out of the
question. She turned sadly to Dolly, to see her compan