"We can't take Trouble along," said Jan, as she saw her little brother coming out of the tent. "We've got to leave him here."
"Yes," agreed Hal. "But we don't need to go right away. We can play with him awhile. You and Ted take care of Trouble and I'll go to get my flashlight. I put it under my pillow last night."
"And I'll get something to eat from Nora," added Ted. "We'll make- believe we're going on a little picnic in the woods."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Jan. She was not afraid to think of the dark cave now.
"Trouble want p'ayhouse!" cried Baby William, as he toddled up to his sister. "Want b'ue stones."
"I can't get you the blue stones—not now," said Janet. "But I guess
Teddy will let you knock down his playhouse and build up another one.
And you can knock down my playhouse, too. Come on, Trouble!"
Knocking over the playhouses of stone which his brother and sister had built the night before seemed such great fun to the little boy, and he had such a good time doing this and, with Jan's help, making another and larger house of his own, that he forgot all about his blue stones.
Ted and Hal did not forget them, though, and the more they thought of the queer way they had been taken away in the night, the more they felt sure that the stones must have gold in them, or, at least, something that the tramps wanted badly enough to come and take it.
And that it was the tramps, or some man, or men, who had taken the blue stones, Hal and Ted felt certain.
"For no dog or other animal could carry away every stone," said Hal. "Anyhow a dog wouldn't want them, nor a fox either. It was the tramps all right."