“I'll untie you,” said his chum.
“Naw; you better not,” said Billy bravely. “He might git away. You leave me jes' like he fixed me so's you can try to ketch him. I hear him in the dinin'-room now. You leave me right here an' step over to yo' house an' 'phone to some mens to come and git him quick. Shet the do' ag'in an' don't make no noise. Fly, now!”
And Jimmy did fly. He again took the garden route and in a minute was at the telephone with the receiver at his ear.
“Hello! Is that you, Miss Central? This is me,” he howled into the transmitter. “Gimme Miss Minerva's beau. I don't know his number, but he's got a office over my papa's bank.”
His father being out of town, the little boy shrewdly decided that Miss Minerva's beau was the next best man to help capture the robber.
“Miss Minerva what lives by me,” he shrieked.
Fortunately Central recognized his childish voice and was willing to humor him, so as she too knew Miss Minerva's beau. The connection was quickly made.
“Hello! Is that you, Major? This is me. If you don't want Mr. Algernon Jones to be robbering everything Miss Minerva's got you better get a move on and come right this minute. You got to hustle and bring 'bout a million pistols and guns and swords and tomahawks and all the mans you can find and dogs. He's the fiercest robber ever was, and he's already done tie Billy to a bath-room chair and done eat up 'bout a million cold biscuits, I spec'. All of us is 'bout to be slewed. Good-bye.”
The plump, round gentleman at the other end of the wire heard this amazing message in the utmost confusion and consternation. He frantically rang the telephone again and again but could get no answer from the Garners' home so he put on his hat and walked the short distance to Miss Minerva's house.
Jimmy was waiting to receive him at the front gate, having again eluded Sarah Jane's vigilance.