The Girls of Central High on Track and Field

  CHAPTER III--THE GYPSY CAMP

  "Why! I think this is outrageous," said Nellie Agnew. "We ought to finda constable and have such a thing stopped. Think of chasing that poorgirl with a mad dog----"

  "I guess he isn't mad," ventured Eve, soberly.

  Bobby laughed. "Even if he's only vexed I wouldn't want a bloodhoundtearing after me over these hills."

  "You know what I mean," persisted Nellie, still wrathfully. "It is adesperate shame! The dog will hurt her----"

  "No, no!" said Eve. "It is trained. And the man has it in leash----"

  "Hush! here they are!" warned Laura, and the girls hid themselves behindthe fringe of bushes.

  The dog gave tongue just as it came in sight, and the sound sent ashiver over the watchers. The baying of a bloodhound is a veryterrifying sound indeed.

  With the dogs were three men--one of them the same the girls of CentralHigh had seen before. The other two were fully as rough-looking.

  "I hope they don't find her!" exclaimed Bobby.

  "They'll find you if you don't keep still," warned Jess.

  But it appeared to the girls that the Gypsies were having considerabledifficulty in following the trail of the girl who had fled along the topof the old stone wall. The dog searched from side to side of the road.He leaped the wall, dragging one of the men after him, and ran about thelower field. That she had traversed the stone fence, like a fox, neverseemed to enter the men's minds, nor the dog's either.

  For some time the party of hunters were in sight; but finally they wentoff in an easterly direction along the road, passing over the brook inwhich the strange girl had left her "water trail," and the girls ofCentral High believed that the fugitive was safe--for the time being, atleast.

  "I wish we knew where she was going," said Nellie. "I'd help her, forone."

  "Me, too," agreed Bobby Hargrew.

  "If she should get as far as our house, mother would take her in," saidEve, in her placid way. "But the Romany folk are peculiar people, andthey have laws of their own and do not like to be brought under those ofother countries."

  "Why, they're just tramps, aren't they? Sort of sublimated tramps,perhaps," said Jess.

  "Not the real Gypsies," said Laura. "They are very jealous, I have read,of their customs, their laws, and their language. They claim descent indirect line from early Egyptian times. The name of Stanley alone, whichis common with them, dates back to William the Conqueror."

  "Well, come on!" sighed Jess. "We don't care anything about the Gypsies,and we can't help that girl--just now. If we tried to follow her upstream we would only give those men the idea of the direction in whichwe went. Let's get on, or we'll never get to Fielding."

  "All right," agreed Laura.

  "Forward, march!" sang out Bobby. "How's the way, Eve? Right down thishill?"

  "Keep parallel with the road. We'll strike another path later," said theSwiss girl, who had rambled all over these hills with her brother.

  "Oh, these shoes!" groaned Jess.

  "I told you so," exclaimed Laura.

  "Bah! what good does it do to repeat _that?_" snapped her chum. "I hatethose old mud-scows of mine that Mrs. Case makes me wear when she goeswalking with us."

  "Well, you certainly wore a fine pair to-day," scoffed Bobby. "I guessit doesn't do to do what Mrs. Case advises against."

  "Not if we want to make points for Central High," said Laura, laughing.

  "That's so! Where would Jess be to-day if this was a regular scheduledwalk, to count for our school in June?" cried Dora.

  "Now, rub it in! rub it in!" exclaimed Jess. "Don't you suppose I knowI've been a chump without you all telling me so?"

  "I do believe it will rain," burst out Dorothy, suddenly. "Doesn't thatlook like a rain-cloud to you, Laura?"

  "Pooh!" said Eve. "Don't be afraid of a little April shower. It won'tdrown us, that's sure."

  "That's all right," agreed Dora, the other twin. "But we don't want toget soaked. If it should start to rain, is there any shelter near?"

  "The Gypsy camp, maybe," laughed Bobby, and then went on ahead, singing:

  "'April showers bring May flowers And sometimes more than that; For the unexpected downpour Often ruins the Easter hat.'

  "Say, girls, we _would_ be in a mess if it should start to rain hard."

  "And that cloud looks threatening," admitted Nellie Agnew.

  "I believe I felt a drop then," gasped Dora.

  "What's the matter, Chicken Little?" laughed Laura. "Is the skyfalling?"

  "You can laugh! Maybe it will be a regular flood," said Jess, ruefully.

  "By the way, what caused the flood?" asked Bobby, soberly.

  "Folks were so wicked--all but Noah," replied Dora.

  "No," said Bobby.

  "It's one of Bobby's 'burns,'" declared Jess. "What _did_ cause theflood, then?"

  "It rained," said the irrepressible one.

  "Come on under this tree, girls!" cried Eve, striding ahead down thehill. "It will only be a passing shower."

  They ran for cover, and the broad branching limbs of the huge cedar Evehad selected faithfully covered them as the brief spring shower wentdrumming by.

  Meanwhile Laura was saying, more thoughtfully:

  "We've got to give our best attention to the inter-class andinter-school athletics when school opens again, girls, if we wantCentral High to stand first at the end of the year. You know we arebeing beaten right along by the East High and Keyport Just think!Central High only Number 3 in points that count when the June field daycomes. We can't stand for that, can we?"

  "I should say not!" cried Bobby. "But we beat 'em last year on thewater."

  "And we stand first in basketball," added Dora Lockwood.

  "But the fact remains we haven't got the championship of the Leaguecinched by any manner of means," returned Laura. "Eve is going to win, Ibelieve, in the shot-putting contests. Mrs. Case says that is on thedoubtful list of girls' athletics. But throwing weights isn't going tohurt Eve, or Hester Grimes, that's sure. And look at that girl atVassar! She put the shot thirty-two feet and three-quarters of an inchwhen she was only sixteen. Eve can do almost as well."

  "I don't know about that, Mother Wit," said the big girl, laughing. "ButI'll do my best."

  "And your best will beat them all, I believe."

  "She'll beat Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, I know," cried Bobby. "And_she_ did all the big 'throws' last year--baseball, basketball, puttingthe shot, and all of 'em."

  "I hope you are right, Bobby," returned the country girl, smiling. Shewas proud of her strength and physique. Her outdoor life since she was alittle child, and what she had inherited from a long line of peasantancestors was coming into play now for the benefit of Central High'sathletic score.

  "Now, don't sit down there on the damp ground, Jess. You'll get a caseof rheumatism--and a bad case, too."

  "Oh, I hope not!" cried Jess, jumping up. "I shouldn't know what to dofor it."

  "You'd have to take mud baths," giggled Dorothy.

  "That road below is in fine shape for that purpose, then," said Jess,looking through the pouring rain at the puddles in the roadway.

  "You'd have to wear flannels," said Dora.

  "Hah!" cried Bobby. "That's it. Flannels are a sure cure. You know,

  "'Although it caused within his home A very serious schism, He still insisted flannel-cakes Were good for rheumatism.'"

  "Go on!" exclaimed Jess, laughing. "You sound like 'Alice inWonderland.'"

  "Say, rather, 'Bobby in Blunderland,'" added Laura. "But to get back toathletics----"

  "'To return to our muttons,'" quoth Bobby, unrepressed.

  "We have a chance to win the championship--our school has--if we canbring the relay teams up to the mark, and win the jumping events. It ison field and track that we have got to gain the points. No doubt ofthat."

  "Then our track teams need strengthening--much," said Nellie Agnew,thoughtfully.

  "I sho
uld say so!" exclaimed Bobby. "I could put on one of LilPendleton's peg-top skirts and beat most of the junior runners rightnow!"

  "If it's as bad as that, we have all got to go into the track athletics,and pull up our score," declared Laura.

  "Hurrah!" cried Dorothy, suddenly. "It's stopped raining."

  "That little shower didn't even wet under the bushes," said Eve, withsatisfaction.

  "Let's get along, then, before another comes and washes us away," saidBobby. "Straight ahead, Evangeline?"

  "Yes. Right down to that dead oak you see on the lower hillside."

  "Good! A mark is set before me, and if my luck holds good I'll reach it.But why prate of 'luck'? Is there such a thing?"

  "Give it up. What's the answer?" asked Dora Lockwood, directly behindher.

  "Luck is a foolish thing--or a belief in it is," complained Bobby. "Listto my tale of woe:

  "Why wear a rabbit foot for luck Or nail a horseshoe on the sill? For if upon the ice you slip You'll surely get a spill.

  "Why cross your fingers in the dark To keep the witches from your track, When if, in getting out of bed, You step upon a tack?"

  "Don't sing us any more doggerel, but lead on!" commanded Laura.

  Bobby was first at the dead tree. There she stopped, not for breath, butbecause, below her, in a sheltered hollow, where a spring drifted awayacross a grassy lawn, there was an encampment. She held up her hand andmotioned for silence.

  There were three large, covered wagons such is Gypsies usually drive. Adozen horses were tethered where the young grass was particularly lush.A fire over which a big kettle of some savory stew bubbled, burned inthe midst of the encampment. There were two gaudily painted canvas tentsstaked on the green, too, although from the opened doors of the wagonsit was evident that the Gypsies, at this time of year, mainly livedwithin their vehicles.

  "Oh!" exclaimed Bobby, when the other girls were crowding about her, andlooking as hard as she was at the camp. "This is what the girl we saw,ran away from."