Once Amy uttered a weak protest, saying: "Don't you think we had better
go back?" when Will silenced her, none too gently. The moment was a
critical one.
The little group of young people held their breath while the gypsies
entered, silent now. In the dim light of the cave their features could
not be seen, but there was something about the bent old figure of the
foremost gypsy that proclaimed the leader of that other day. They were
as velvet-footed as cats, and as the girls' eyes became more accustomed
to the gloom they discovered that the gypsies were not hunch-backed, as
had first appeared, but merely carried upon their backs packs like those
others scattered about the cave. These they deposited on the floor
without much ceremony and were gone before the girls and boys had fairly
realized it.
The watchers stood motionless even after the footsteps had died away in
the distance. It seemed as though a mystic spell had been woven about
them, which, for the time, they were powerless to break.
It was Roy who first "came to life," as Mollie expressed it. "I say,
what's the use of standing here?" he inquired.
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