"We'll never be sorry for that," declared Cora emphatically; "and I feel sure you've never done anything you ought to be ashamed of."

Nina's face glowed with grat.i.tude at the generous speech.

"Oh, I never have!" she cried. "But I've been accused of doing it, and that sometimes in the eyes of the world amounts to nearly the same thing."

She had dropped all pretence to gypsy speech now, and spoke like any other American girl of good breeding and education.

"I think I'll tell you now," she cried impulsively. "That is, if you're not too tired to hear it?"

"Not a bit," answered Cora, who was inwardly delighted.

"I'm just dying to hear it, to tell the truth," said Bess frankly.

"So am I," echoed her sister.

"You are right," began Nina, "in thinking that I am not a gypsy. I am an American girl and I was born in this State. And my name isn't Nina either. But it will have to do for the present, because until this matter is cleared up, I don't want to tell my real name.

"My mother and father died when I was quite young, and I went to live with an uncle. He was an unusual man, and though no doubt he was fond of me in a way, our natures were too different for us to get along well together. I was hot tempered and hasty and we often quarreled. It was after an exceedingly bitter quarrel that I made up my mind that I would run away from home and earn my own living.

"I got a position in a department store, with just enough pay to keep body and soul together. Again and again I was tempted to go back and make things up with my uncle. But that silly pride of mine kept me from doing it. Oh, how I wish I had!

"There had been a number of thefts in the store, and the manager was furious. He told all the employees that the next one who was caught would be sent to jail. Up to that time he had usually been content with discharging them.

"One day I was called to his office and accused of having picked up a lady's purse that had been laid on a counter. A man who was employed in the store said that he had seen me take it.

"I was frightened nearly to death, for I had never even seen the purse.

But it was found lying under my counter, as though I had hidden it there.

I cried and begged and protested, but it did no good."

"You poor child!" exclaimed Cora, deeply affected.

"The manager must have been a brute!" cried Bess indignantly.

"I suppose he thought I was really guilty," said Nina, "and he was exasperated by the many other thefts. I thought I should go mad. He took up the telephone to call for a policeman, and in that minute when his back was turned I slipped out of the door down the stairs and into the street.

"Some way I got into the outskirts of the town, where I found a camp of gypsies. I don't remember much after that. I suppose I must have collapsed. But they took me in and nursed me, and when I came to consciousness again some days afterward, I found that the caravan had moved on and was in a strange town a good way off from Roxbury."

"Roxbury!" exclaimed Cora.

"That's where I had been employed," went on Nina. "When I found myself lying in a gypsy van, with an old woman taking care of me, I did a lot of hard thinking. With the gypsies I was safe. n.o.body would think of looking for me there. But anywhere else I was likely to be arrested at any minute. And I would rather have died than gone to jail.

"So I stayed on with them and learned to tell fortunes. I didn't know what else to do, and gradually I got used to it. But I've never been really happy there. And I've watched everybody who came to the camp, for fear he might be an officer."

Cora reached over and took the girl's hand comfortingly in her own.

Quick tears evoked by the sympathetic action sprang to Nina's eyes, but she brushed them away and went on:

"I never met anybody I really knew until yesterday. Then I saw a man whom I had known in Roxbury. That's the reason you found me hiding in the woods. I was relieved when I went back to find that he had gone.

"But to-day he came upon me unawares, and he knew me through all my gypsy disguise. He threatened to expose me, to hand me over to the police. I was wild with fright. You had been kind to me and I thought of you. I waited to-night till the camp was asleep, and then I slipped out. And here I am."

CHAPTER XXVI COUNCIL OF WAR

The girl had told her story in such a simple and straightforward way that, combined with the candor in her eyes, it carried conviction to the sympathetic hearts of her hearers. And their eyes were moist as they listened to the pelting of the rain and thought of the fugitive making her way through the lonely woods, her footsteps dogged with terror.

She sat looking from the eyes of one to the other, and was comforted by what she saw there.

"You poor, dear girl!" cried Cora, springing up and giving her an impulsive hug. "You've had an awful time of it, but we're going to do our best to straighten things out and make you forget your troubles."

"Of course we know who the rascal was that threatened you," said Bess.

"It was that man Higby."

"He was the one," admitted Nina.

"You say that he used to know you in Roxbury," put in Belle. "Was he employed in the same store with you?"

"Not only that," returned Nina, "but _he was the man who said that he saw me take the purse!_"

"He, of all men!" exclaimed Bess. "When I saw him in the very act of slipping back Cora's purse after he had taken it!"

"But why should he have tried to put the theft on you rather than anybody else?" asked Belle.

"I think he had a grudge against me," answered Nina. "He had been too familiar in his manner toward me, and I resented it. He was angry and told me that I would be sorry. But I don't think that would have been enough to make him go as far as he did. He worked in the same part of the store that I did, and I have thought since that perhaps he took the purse himself. Then, when the search for it was coming close to him, he got scared, and slipped it under my counter so that the blame would fall on me."

"A cur like that oughtn't to be allowed to live!" cried Bess in hot indignation.

"Of course, I don't _know_ that he stole it," qualified Nina; "but his eagerness to put the matter on some one else makes me think he might have done so. And even if he isn't a thief, he knew that he was telling a falsehood when he said he saw me take it."

"But why should he threaten you now?" asked Belle. "The whole matter has blown over long ago as far as he's concerned, and he's in no further danger. I can understand how the coward might have lied in a moment of fright to save his own skin. But why should he be cold-blooded enough to keep on persecuting you now?"

"He's got some purpose in view," replied Nina, "and he wants to make me help him by threatening to expose me if I don't. I don't know what it is, but from what I know of him I'm sure it's something wrong. He said he'd see me again tomorrow and tell me his plan. I told him I wouldn't have anything to do with him or his plans, but he only grinned and said he guessed I'd rather help him than go to jail. I ran away from him then, and later on I made up my mind to come here."

"You did just exactly right," declared Cora. "We'll take care of you until everything is made all right. But you'll have to keep close to the house, so that n.o.body besides ourselves will know you're here."

"How about the gypsies?" asked Belle. "Won't they make a search for you?"

"I suppose they will," answered Nina. "You see," she said with a little pitiful smile, "they regard me as one of their a.s.sets. I make a good deal of money for them from the visitors to the camp. But apart from that, some of them are really fond of me, and I feel the same way toward them.

They took me in when I was in extremity, and in their way they have been kind. I never want to go back if I can help it, but I will always have a feeling of grat.i.tude and affection for them."

"And so you ought," returned Cora. "But all the same your natural place is with your own people, and you mustn't have your life spoiled. We'll set things in motion the first thing to-morrow morning-or rather this morning," she smiled, as she looked at her watch. "Good gracious, girls, it's after two now! We simply must get to bed."

They put out the light and stole upstairs, where, after bestowing Nina comfortably, they were soon sound asleep.

But Cora was astir early, for she wanted to forestall the appearance of Nina at the breakfast table by notifying Aunt Betty and the boys of all that had happened in the night.