With a little gasp of excitement the girls realized
that he was without his heavy pack. Whatever it was they had brought
evidently had been left behind in the cave. One by one they emerged
until their number was complete. The last of the little band, a lad
apparently no more than sixteen years old, replaced the screening bushes
very carefully across the mouth of their hiding place. Then they turned,
and retraced their steps, still speaking that strange melodious tongue
of theirs, until they had reached the shore and departed the way they
had come. It was not till then that the watchers ventured to speak above
a whisper.
"Now for the cave and what it contains!" cried Will, and started for the
spot the gypsies had so lately occupied.
The girls and boys followed him, the former excited yet half fearful.
"Do you think we had better?" asked Amy, as Will pushed aside the
curtain of foliage and peered inside. "It's getting dark, and besides
the gypsies might come back. Please don't, Will."
"Do you mean to say that you girls want us to go home without seeing
what is in there?" asked Frank incredulously.
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