“‘Ow!’ screamed the robber, trying to draw his head under the ruffle. ‘I say, “Yes.”’
“‘And I say, “Yes,”’ screamed every one of the rest of the robbers, huddling as best they could under their ruffles.
“‘Very well, then,’ said the judge. So the man with the knife laid it down by the grindstone, and the judge gave his hand to the cat. ‘You must go to the cave,’ he said, ‘and capture the rest of the robbers.’”
Joel and Van, who were horribly disappointed when the man put up his knife, now brightened up at prospect of livelier work, and more to their taste, at the cave. “Do hurry, Polly!” they clamored.
“Well, then the judge told the man who had rung the bell to jingle it again, and scream out ‘Eighty-eight men wanted at once’ because, you see, he knew there were just one hundred robbers in all. And when they came in, he told them to go out and get a bag apiece, just like the ones the twelve robbers were in. And pretty soon they were all ready; and off they started, with the wise old cat at the head; and after her came the twelve men with the robbers in the bags, all but their heads, because, you see, those would have to be out, for them to see the way. And the robbers said, ‘Left, right,’ as they had to turn, all along the way to the cave, down the long and lonely road. Well, and finally they reached the place, and they stopped and listened. ‘They are boiling their hasty-pudding for supper,’ said one of the robbers, because, you see, all the men made them tell things.
“‘This is the time, then,’ said the wise old cat to the first robber. ‘Now do you call out big and loud to let you in.’ So the robber did it; he had to, you know; and a voice inside said, ‘Oh! that you, Jim, back again?’ and the great stone door flew open; and, just as quick as you could think, there they were all inside; and every man pulled out a bag from under his arms, and flopped it over the head of a robber, all except the robber who was stirring the hasty-pudding over a big iron kettle,—he fell into the kettle instead, because he ducked his head when he saw the bag coming. Well, and oh! they were all hauled off to jail; but first the nice old cat took some sealing-wax she had been wise enough to bring with her from the jail; and she stuck the big stone door all up tight, so that no more robbers could use that cave.
“And the judge sentenced all the hundred robbers, in a bunch, to a desert island, where there wasn’t any cave, nor anybody else,—not a single person besides themselves. So they were all taken off in boats the next day, and”—
“And could they get out of their bags then?” asked Phronsie, with a long breath.
“Yes, after they got to the island,” said Polly, “but not a single minute before. And as soon as they rolled them out of the boats, the men who brought them untied the bags, and said ‘Scat!’ And away ran the robbers, and were never seen again.”