"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Tad again. "Have you found some more lost cows?"
"No. I've lost something instead of finding it this time," said the little boy.
"What have you lost?" asked Uncle Tad, as he began to shake the ashes out of the cook stove, getting ready to make a new fire in it. The stove pipe went right out through the tent, with an asbestos collar around it so the canvas would not catch fire.
"I've lost my electric train," cried Bunny Brown, looking around the kitchen tent to make sure his toy was not stuck in some corner. "I was playing with it yesterday, and I had one of the cars when I went with Sue and Indian Eagle Feather to find his lost cow. Then I brought it back to camp and I put it here so the water would dry out. Now it's gone!"
"Yes, it seems to be gone," said Uncle Tad, looking carefully around the tent, after he had put a match to the wood kindlings. "And I know you left it here because I saw it the last thing when I came in to make sure the fire was all right before going to bed."
"Then who could have taken it?" asked Bunny.
"Well, as to that I couldn't say," answered Uncle Tad slowly. "It might have run off by itself, I suppose?"
"It couldn't have!" declared Bunny. "Of course it runs by itself when the batteries are connected, but they weren't this time. And the train wasn't even on the track, though the rails were piled up near it, and so were the batteries. Yet everything is gone!"
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, coming into the kitchen tent to start the breakfast.
"My train is gone!" said Bunny sadly. "And I didn't hear anybody around camp during the night," he added, and told of finding out about his loss.