The night passed quietly enough, except that about twelve o'clock the parrot suddenly began shrieking:
"Police! Police! Burglars! Police! I'm a crack-crack-cracker!"
"Dick! Dick! Wake up!" called Mrs. Martin. "Someone is at the front door!"
"Police! Police!" chattered the parrot again.
And, surely enough, it was the police, though how the red and green bird knew it is more than I can say. A passing policeman, seeing the light in Uncle Toby's house, and having been told by Mrs. Watson, the housekeeper, on her way to her sister's, that the place was to be closed, had stopped to inquire.
"I thought it was burglars," said the policeman, after Daddy Martin had gone down to the front door and explained.
"That's what Mr. Nip did, too, I guess," said Mr. Martin.
"Who's Mr. Nip?" asked the officer.
"The parrot," said the father of the Curlytops. "He awakened us by his shrieking."
After the policeman had gone, the house became quiet again, and nothing more happened until morning. After breakfast the water was turned off, and the home of Uncle Toby was made ready for closing up until the old gentleman should return.