“Mother was in the living room as I let myself in the house. She had been out somewhere and had just come in. I told her about my hold-up and explained I had gotten the watch back. I noticed that she was looking at me kinder funny, but she didn’t say anything till I had finished; then, with a puzzled look on her face, she told me that I had left my watch in the bath-room that evening and that she had put it in my room. You can believe that I wasn’t very long in pulling that watch out of my pocket. It was almost exactly like mine, but it only needed a glance to show that it wasn’t my watch at all.
“‘Great Scott,’ I groaned, as I sank down in a chair. ‘I held that man up at the point of a gun and robbed him of his watch.’ You can, perhaps, imagine about how I felt. I was a sure enough highwayman, and a successful one at that. Just then Father came in, and of course I had to tell him all about it. I thought he’d die laughing at first, but in a moment the serious side of it occurred to him and he sobered up mighty quick.”
“What in the world did you do?” Bob laughed, as Rex paused.
“Well, there was only one thing I could do,” Rex said. “Early the next morning I took the watch to police headquarters and explained matters to the captain. I thought he’d throw a fit, but finally, after he’d called in all the officers about the place and told them about it and they had nearly laughed their heads off, he said that he’d fix it up all right and I was glad to get away. Of course I didn’t blame them for laughing. I’d have laughed myself if it had happened to anyone else.”
“And did he get the watch back to the owner?” Jack asked.
“Oh, yes,” Rex replied. “The man came in that very day to lodge a complaint and the matter was explained to him.”
“Did the captain tell him who the man was that had held him up?” Bob asked.
“No,” Rex replied. “He told me afterward that he had explained to the man that it would be best not to tell him who it was, and he was very nice about it and said he thought the same way. But, oh my, suppose I meet him sometime and he recognizes me. I’ll feel like a plugged thirty cent piece.”
“Oh, well, he’d probably not recognize you anyhow,” Jack consoled him.
“That’s the funniest story I ever heard for a true one,” Bob declared, as he settled himself in a comfortable position and said goodnight.