The Motor Girls Through New England Part 39

"I am sure I did," declared Bess. "Oh, If only we find a cave, there are enough of us----"

"The young ladies should not venture too deep in the woods," suggested Officer Brown. "We had best leave them with one of the young men here."

"Oh, no," objected Belle. "We must go with you. We are better in a crowd."

"Just as you say. But look! Is not that a light?"

They were almost in front of the old house. Cora and Helka were tying the rope to the open window.

"Sing! Sing!" whispered Lena, at the door. "Mother Hull is listening."

Quickly Cora picked up the instrument again, and, although voice and hands trembled, she sang once more the last verse of the "Gypsy's Warning," while Helka played her little harp.

"Hark! Hark!" shrieked Bess. "That is Cora's voice! Listen!"

Spellbound they stood.

"Yes," shouted Belle. "That's Cora!"

"Oh, quick," gasped Betty, "she may stop, and then----"

A rustle in the bushes close by startled them. A man groped his way out.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"Oh, Leland!"

It was Miss Robbins who uttered the words. She made her way up to the stranger, and while the others stood dumfounded she threw herself in the stranger's arms.

"You, Regina? Here?"

"Yes, is this the Hemlock Bend? Oh, to think that we have found you!"

"But I must go! That was her harp. That was Lillian--somewhere in that thick woods!"

"And the voice was Cora's," interrupted Jack. "Where can she be--to sing, and to sing like that?"

The detectives with Mr. Rand were pressing on. They soon emerged from the thicket and saw the old mansion.

"That is the Bradly place," said Officer Brown. "Only an old woman and a couple of girls live there. That is no place for one to be kidnapped."

"No matter who is there," declared Bess, "I heard Cora sing, and that is Cora's song, 'The Gypsy's Warning.'"

"And I heard Lillian play," declared Dr. Robbins' brother. "I have promised to rescue her to-night."

"And that is why you came?" asked his sister.

"Yes, she is there, in a gypsy den!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

VICTORY

"Is SHE asleep?" asked Cora, as Lena poked her head in the door again.

"Yes, and she will not wake. You may go!"

"One more little song," begged Helka. "I may never play my lute again."

"Why, Lena could bring it," suggested Cora. "It is not much to carry; and your box, I will take that."

Helka ran her fingers over the strings.

"Sing," she said, and Cora sang.

"His voice is calling sweet and low!

'Babbette! Pierro!'

He rows across, he takes her hand, And then they sail away!"

"Yes," interrupted Helka, "he will come, and he will take my hand. Let us go!"

"There! There!" screamed Bess. "That was Cora's voice!"

"And that was Lillian's lute! Did I not give it to her?" insisted the strange young man, Leland.

"Then our lost ones are together," said Jack. "I am going!"

"Wait! Wait!" begged the detectives. "The dogs in there would tear you to pieces!"

"They must eat my hot lead first," said Jack grimly, drawing his revolver.

"No, wait," implored Mr. Rand. "A false move now may spoil it all."

Every man, young and old, in the party took out his revolver and had it in readiness. Then, in a solid line, they deliberately walked up to the old house--through the path lined with boxwood over the little flower garden.

"Yes, there is a light. See it near the roof?"

The girls were almost on the heels of the men. They could not be induced to remain in the lane.

"What is that?"

"A woman's voice," said Officer Brown. "She is calling the dogs!"

But no dogs came. Instead, a girl, Lena, confronted them.