THOROUGHLY alarmed, Vevi and Hanny ran as fast as they could to the house to relate what had happened.
“Uncle Peter! Uncle Peter!” Hanny shouted, bursting into the house. “Come quick!”
“Why, what is wrong?” he inquired. Startled, he rose quickly to his feet, fearing that one of the Brownies had been hurt.
“Our tulip bulbs!” Hanny cried. “Did you move them from the little house?”
“No, Hanny, I did not.”
“Then they have been stolen!” Hanny was so excited that she began to speak in Dutch, telling her uncle of the discovery she and Vevi had made.
Mr. Van Der Lann ran to the storehouse to see for himself.
“Gone!” he groaned as he too beheld the empty shelves.
“Maybe it was Mr. Evans who took the bulbs,” guessed Vevi, remembering that she had seen the man examining the padlock a few days earlier.
“No! No! It could not have been he,” insisted the nurseryman. “Mr. Evans is a federal agent. He was sent here to try to catch the smugglers. I talked to him only last night and he now has left Rosedale.”