The reporters in particular poked and pried all over the place, passing from the great house to the village, and thence to the gypsy camp on the borders of Abbot's Wood.

From one person and another they learned facts, which were published with such fanciful additions that they read like fiction.

On the authority of Mother Cockleshell--who was not averse to earning a few shillings--a kind of Gil Blas tale was put into print, and the wanderings of Ishmael Hearne were set forth in the picturesque style of a picarooning romance.

But of the time when the adventurous gypsy assumed his Gentile name, the Romany could tell nothing, for obvious reasons.

Until the truth became known, because of the man's tragic and unforeseen death, those in the camp were not aware that he was a Gorgio millionaire.