“Oh, how glad I am!” she exclaimed.  “I was afraid that Peter had caught you and tied you up with your friend, and that you would think I had sent you up there so that he would trap you!  How did you escape?”

“I climbed down the rocks,” said Bessie simply, and smiled at Lolla’s gasp of astonishment.

“You climbed down the rocks!” cried the gypsy.  “However did you do that?  There ain’t many men—­not even many of our men—­would try that, I can tell you.  I thought perhaps you would try to do that, and I was coming around this way to get to the foot of the rocks and see if I could find out what had become of you.”

“You know where we are and how to get back, then?” asked Bessie.

“Of course I do.  I know all these woods.”  Lolla laughed.  “I have set traps for partridges and rabbits here many and many a time, but the guides never saw me.  You knew where you were going, didn’t you?  If you’d kept on as you were going when you met me you would have come to the main trail in a minute or two, and then, if you’d turned to the right, and kept straight on, you’d have come to Long Lake, where you started from.”

“I thought that was what would happen, Lolla, but I wasn’t quite sure.”

“Did you hear me shouting when Peter came along?  I hoped you would understand and bide yourself some way, so that he wouldn’t find you.  What I was most afraid of was that you would be in the woods with your friend, and that you wouldn’t hear us.”

“Yes, I heard you, and I knew what you were doing, Lolla; that you meant to warn me that Peter had come sooner than you thought he would.  I was grateful, too, but I was afraid just to hide myself and let him go by, because the woods were so thick on each side of the trail that I was afraid he would see where I had broken through and catch me.”

Lolla nodded her head.

“You are wise.  You would be a good gypsy, Bessie.  You would soon learn all the things we know ourselves.  Peter has very quick eyes, and he is very suspicious, too.  He saw you at the camp, you know, and he would have guessed right away, if he had seen you there, that you were looking for Dolly.”

“That was just what I was afraid of, Lolla.  He would have tied me up with her if he had found me, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes.  He’s a bad man, that Peter.  I think if John and he were not so friendly John would not have done this.  He is kind, and brave, and he always tried to stop anyone who wanted to steal children.  He would steal a horse, or a deer, but never a child; that was cowardly, he said.”

“He didn’t hurt you, did he, Lolla?”

The gypsy girl laughed.

“Oh, no.  He tried to hit me, but I got away from him too quickly.  I would not let him touch me.  With John it is different.  He is my man; he may beat me if he likes.  But not Peter; I hate him.  If he beat me I would put this into him.”

Bessie, surprised by the look of hate in Lolla’s eyes, drew back in fear as Lolla produced a long, sharp knife from the folds of her dress, and flourished it for a moment.