“When we saw that story in the newspaper we had to run away again,” sighed Rose. “Oh, it was dreadful!”
“But I was determined from the first that I would find you,” said Jack mischievously, “and you see—I did.”
“No, I did!” burst out Andy.
“Hush there, boy! Didn’t I find you?” asked Jack.
“Well, we are found, anyhow,” commented Nellie, “and I don’t want to be lost again. But who got the earrings?”
“Me for the jig!” shouted Andy. “Now I come in. You see,” and he straightened up, and thrust his hands in his pockets as he always did when he had anything important to divulge, “I gave the young lady the card. I gave her the tip about the cops. I piped off old lady Schenk and Ramsy, and say! You ought to see them tear around Chelton when they found everybody in the game had cleared out!”
Andy stopped to laugh. The others laughed without stopping.
“And then—golly! If me mother didn’t do the old lady’s wash again just because there was a strike at the patch. And—then——She finds the sparklers tied up tight in an old rag of a handkerchief!”
“Your mother found them!” all the girls present asked in accord.
“Sure thing!” replied Andy.