Finally Nat shouted to his brother to follow him, as he “had struck a new trail.”
“Come along, Tavia,” Ned called in turn. “This woods may be the swallowing kind, and you might get gobbled up too. Keep close to us now.”
There was no need to urge the girl in that direction, for the woods had indeed a terror for her now, and she felt more inclined to run straight home than to help further in the search. But this, she knew, would look cowardly, so she determined to follow the boys into the marshy wilderness.
It was a rough way--that winding path, for the thick brush grew so closely over it that only the bend of the bushes showed there had been a path there, and that it was now seldom, if ever, used, save as a run for frightened rabbits, or a track for the hounds that followed them.
“There!” exclaimed Nat. “See that open? Didn’t I tell you we would find one? And there--what’s that over there at the hill? A cave, as I live. Now we are ‘going some.’”
“But, oh, Nat!” whispered Tavia, who had come up very close to him. “Look! There are men--over there! See, by that tree! Oh, I shall die, I am so frightened! They may have guns!”
“Well, so have we for that matter. You just keep your nerve. No danger that those fellows will attack us,” and the young man clapped his hand on his hip pocket to indicate the surety of his weapon there.
Ned, at that same time, had caught sight of the men hiding. He came over to where Tavia and his brother stood.
“Don’t let them see us,” he cautioned. “Just get back of that clump of bushes, and we will both fire together. They’ll skip then, I guess.”
Without moving a bush, or rustling a leaf, the trio crept behind the thick blackberry vines, and the next moment two shots rang out through the gully! The report echoed against the very hill where the men were crouching.
Instantly they sprang out into the open space. There were two in number and Tavia recognized them. They were the “bad gypsies,” those turned out of the camp and away from the camping grounds where the other families of gypsies had their quarters.
“Hush!” he cautioned, with a finger on his lips.
Only for a moment did the men stay in sight. Evidently they were trying to locate the direction whence the shots came, but not being able to do so, they, realizing the “enemy” had the entire advantage of them, turned and fled!