“Did—did they steal much?” asked Grace, going around to Will as though to protect him from the danger which had threatened him.
“They took my watch and some odd change I happened to have on me, and forty dollars of Frank’s,” said Will, at which Frank pulled a long face.
“It was just after pay day,” he admitted ruefully.
“And we’ve been spending all our spare time since trying to find the scoundrels,” finished Will, grimly. “And we’ll get ’em yet!”
“Let us help,” begged Amy. She was always very brave when Will was around. “If you were robbed near here maybe the same tramps did it that have been annoying us.”
“What?” cried Allen, his anxious glance traveling toward Betty. He had heard of the set-to the girls had had with the tramps on Triangle Island from Will and Frank, and it is safe to say the young lawyer had not spent a really comfortable minute since. “Are those fellows still bothering you?”
“I think they came again last night,” admitted the Little Captain. “They gave us a good deal of a scare, but as soon as they knew we had seen them, they ran off into the woods again.”
“Cowards!” muttered Allen, clenching his fist. “I’d just like to get my hands on them!”
“You have nothing on me, old man,” Will assured him. “As soon as we get some lunch”—here he sent a pleading glance in the direction of the girls—“it will be our job to comb the surrounding country pretty thoroughly. If we don’t find the thieves, at least we can make a good try at it.”
So agitated were the girls and boys over this latest act of the ruffianly tramps that they did not eat lunch with as much zest as usual. All they could think of was their eagerness to start off on a search for the thieves who had so boldly robbed the two boys.