en we get back to town we'll figure it all out, and see
how much it would cost for butter and sugar and nuts and chocolate and
all the things we'd need."

"Yes, and if we used lots of things we'd get them cheaper, too, Bessie,"
said Dolly, surprising Bessie by this exhibition of her business
knowledge. "Oh, I think that would be fine. I'd just love to have money
that I'd earned myself. Some of the other girls have been winning honor
beads by earning money, but I never could think of any way that I could
do it."

Dolly was beginning to yawn, and Bessie herself felt sleepy. But when
she proposed that they should go into the tent now Dolly protested.

"Oh, let's stay outside, Bessie," she said. "If we went in now we'd just
wake ourselves up. We can sleep out here just as well as not. What's
the difference!"

And Bessie was so sleepy that she was glad to agree to that. In a few
moments they were sound asleep, with no thought of the exciting episodes
of the day and night to disturb them.

The fire was low when Bessie awoke with a start. At first everything
seemed all right; she could hear nothing. But then, suddenly, she looked
over to where Dolly had been lying. There was no sign of her chum! And,
just as Bessie herself was about to cry out, she heard a muffled call,
in Dolly's tones, and then a loud crashing through the undergrowth near
the camp, as someone or something made off swiftly through the woods!
The gypsy had come back!

CHAPTER VIII

THE PURSUIT

For a moment Bessie was too paralyzed with fear even to cry but. It was
plain that the gypsy had carried poor Dolly away with him, and that,
moreover, he had muffled her one cry for help. For a moment Bessie stood
wondering what to do. To alarm the camp would be almost useless, she
felt; the girls, waking up out of a sound sleep, could do nothing until
they understood what had happened, and even then the chances were
against their being able to help in any practical manner.

And so Bessie fought down that blind instinct to scream out her terror,
and, in a moment, throwing off her blanket, she began to creep out into
the black woods, dark now as pitch, and as impenetrable, it seemed, as
one of the tropical jungles she had read of.

One thing Bessie felt to be, above everything, necessary. She must find
out what the gypsy meant to do, and where he was taking Dolly. If, by
some lucky chance, she could track him, there would be a far better
opportunity