Bunny did not know how to answer.
Mr. Brown came up from the fish and boat dock, and with him was Bunker Blue.
"Did you find him?" asked Mr. Brown, meaning Toby, of course.
"No, he isn't to be found around here," answered Mrs. Brown. "We have looked everywhere, but there is no Toby!"
"Oh, Daddy! do you think you can find him?" asked Sue, and there were tears in her eyes.
"Of course I'll find him!" said Daddy Brown, and, somehow, it did the children good just to hear their father say that. "Now, we'll begin at the beginning," went on the fish merchant, "and have a look at the barn door. You know there's an old saying not to lock the stable door after the horse is stolen, but this time the door was locked before Toby was taken away. We are sure of that. Now, I'll have a look at the lock and key."
Mr. Brown looked carefully at these and also at the door of the stable. There was nothing to show that any one had gotten in, and yet the lock must have been opened or the door could not have been swung back to let Toby out. And Toby was surely gone.
"He couldn't have gotten out, or been taken out, any way but through the door," said Mr. Brown, as he walked around the stable. "The window is too small, even if there wasn't any wire screen over it to keep out the flies and mosquitoes."
"What do you think happened?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Well," answered her husband, "I think some one, with another key, must have opened the lock and have taken the pony away in the night."