This time the hermit, disturbed by the sudden running away of the Indian, and by the voices outside his window, started toward the latter.
"Quick! Some of you get to the door so he can't get away," called Mr. Brown, but Bixby did not seem to want to run away. He stood in the middle of the room until Mr. Brown, Bunny, Sue and the others had entered.
"Oh, there's my toy engine!" cried Bunny making a grab for it.
"And my Teddy bear!" added Sue.
"Look out, don't touch them!" called Mr. Brown. "He has fixed the dry batteries in the toys to a spark coil, which makes the current stronger, and he's giving shocks that way. Aren't you?" he asked, turning to the hermit.
"Since you have found me out, I have," was the answer. "I admit I have been bad, but I am sorry. I will tell you everything. I used to be a man who went about the country with an electric machine, giving people electrical treatments for rheumatism and other pains. I made some money, but my wife died and her sickness and burial took all I had. Then my electrical machine broke and I could not buy another.
"However, I did manage to get a little one, run with dry batteries, and I began going about the country making cures.
"Then this place was left me by a relative. I thought I could make a living off it with the help of a hired boy, so I got Tom.
"I found some Indians lived here, and, learning how simple they were and that they thought everything strange was 'heap big medicine,' as they called it, I thought of trying my battery on them. First I tried it on Tom, and he yelled that I was sticking needles into him. He did not understand about the electricity, and I did not try to explain.
"I remembered what your children had told me about having a toy train of cars that ran by electricity, and a Teddy bear with two lamps for eyes. I knew these batteries, though small, would be strong, and just what I needed with what electrical things I had. So I stole the toy train of cars and the Teddy bear.