“Come on, indeed!” said Margot, listening with might and main to the pitiful sobs.
“Let’s go back home, then, and we’ll fetch father,” suggested Stella.
“Why, you said your own self that he would be out to tea!” returned the downright Margot, quivering with rage. “_You_ can go home, if you like, but I’m not coming. Why, before anyone gets back to help they might----”
Margot took a step in the direction of the tent.
“Oh, don’t be so stupid, Margot!” Stella seized her skirts. “They might do--anything to you! Oh, I wish you wouldn’t be so--so Australian! It’s not even sensible. One girl against two great gipsies! Even if you _did_ go inside, what would you do?”
“I’d not be--one girl, if you came too,” Margot informed her. “Here, you’re right in one thing; we’d better get the men out of the tent, first, and then go in! Only, how....”
“There’s no way. How could there be? I’m going home,” said Stella.
“Of all the _cowards_! That’s what _you_ are! I’d rather be--Australian, as you call it, than a coward and leave a baby crying!” Stella’s guest of the afternoon turned upon her hostess with flashing eyes. “And after talking of winning the bravery shield!”
The mention of the shield certainly seemed to revive, to a slight extent, Stella’s departing nerve.
“I’m not a coward, and if it’s for the shield----” She stopped. “Only, how----? We’ll never get the shield if the gipsies kill us.”
“_Kill_ us! It’s better than killing the baby, anyhow. And they won’t kill us. Look here!” Margot had been thinking rapidly. “There’s two of us, and there’s two things to do. (Oh dear, _do_ listen to that baby!) Stella, if I get the men out, will you go in? If they’re not there--only the baby, you know--you couldn’t possibly be frightened, could you? And you could rescue it while they are both away.”
“I wouldn’t mind rescuing a baby,” admitted Stella, with her mental eye on the bravery shield, “so long as--I mean, so long as you’ll do something to keep the men away from me all the time.”
“Leave that to me, then. You lie here--till I’ve done it. You absolutely needn’t move till you see the gipsy men come out of the tent. Then, well, they’ll not be back, I promise you, till you’ve had time to get hold of the child. It sounds like a small one, anyway. I’m sure you can carry it until I meet you.”