"That's so, Bunny," said Mr. Brown. "Perhaps Tom is in there. That would make Splash bark, for he knows where Tom is." Mr. Brown thought as Bunny did, that Mr. Trimble might have caught Tom, and locked him up in the dark smoke-house.
"Oh, Daddy! Do you s'pose Tom's in there?" asked Sue in a whisper, for she had heard what Bunny had whispered.
Daddy Brown nodded his head. He walked up to Mr. Trimble and said:
"Now look here! There's something in that smoke-house, and I want to see what it is. Our dog knows there's something there, and I'm pretty sure of it myself."
"Well, what do you think it is?" asked Mr. Trimble. "If there's anyone in there I don't know it. But I'll open the door, and let you see. Your dog certainly is making a lot of noise."
"Have you got that poor boy, Tom Vine, locked up in there?" asked Mr. Brown.
The farmer laughed.
"Tom Vine locked up in there? Certainly not!" he cried. "I wish I did have. I'd like to punish him for running away from me. But I haven't seem him since he was at your camp. No, sir! He isn't in my smoke-house. I don't believe anything, or anybody, is in there. But I'll open the door and let you look inside. Why, the door isn't locked," the farmer went on, "and I guess I couldn't keep a boy like Tom Vine in a smoke-house without locking the door on him."
Mr. Brown did not know what to think now. As for Bunny and Sue they thought surely their new friend, Tom, was locked in the queer little house.