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