“Hey! Stop! Lemme up!” roared Sammy again.
“I got it, Peter!” shrieked Liz, and, springing up, she darted into the bushes and disappeared.
“Stop! She’s stole my money,” gasped Sammy in horror and alarm.
“She never! You didn’t have no money!” declared Peter, and with a final blow that stunned Sammy for the moment, the other leaped up and followed his wild companion into the brush.
Sammy, weeping in good earnest now, bruised and scratched in body and sore in spirit, climbed slowly to his feet. Never before in any of his runaway escapades had he suffered such ignominy and loss.
Why! he had actually fallen among thieves. First his bag and all his chattels therein had been stolen. Now these two ragamuffins had robbed him of every penny he possessed.
He dared not go back to the house where he had bought breakfast and complain. The other youngsters there might fall upon and beat him again!
Sammy Pinkney at last was tasting the bitter fruits of wrong doing. Even weeding another beet-bed could have been no more painful than these experiences which he was now suffering.
CHAPTER XI—MYSTERIES ACCUMULATE
“And if you go to the store, or anywhere else for Mrs. McCall or Linda, remember don’t take that bracelet with you,” commanded Agnes in a most imperative manner, fairly transfixing her two smaller sisters with an index finger. “Remember!”