Pretty soon we noticed a little crowd of people outside the second car, so we went up that way to see what was the matter. A couple of men were just coming down off the platform and each of them was holding a man by the collar. The men they were holding had on scout hats. I took one look and g—o—o—d night! Those two fellows were the automobile thieves.
"What—do—you—know—about—that?" Connie whispered to me.
"And the train people never knew they were up there until we told them," Westy said.
I guess the two men were detectives. Anyway, just as they stepped off, they let go the one man and one of them said, "Now you two hoboes beat it, and the next time either of you is caught riding on this road, you'll do time for it There's the road——"
Jiminetty! I didn't wait for him to say any more. I just went right up to that detective and I said, "Mister, those men are worse than tramps; they're not tramps at all; they're thieves; they stole an automobile; hurry up, you'd better catch him."
Oh, boy, didn't he grab hold of that fellow again! The fellow must have seen some of us, because he was just starting to run when, zippo, that detective had him by the collar again. The other one hadn't been let go even, so he was safe.
By that time passengers from the train were crowding around and Pee-wee was right in the center, shouting, same as he always does. "They're—they're desperate—culprits——" he said; "we foiled them once before—we did——"
All the passengers were laughing. Even the conductor and the detectives were laughing. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't speak.
He just shouted on, "You can say what you want about robbers and bandits and—and all things like that being bad—in the movies—but anyway, I don't care how many censors there are—you've got to admit that the movies are all right—they can—what d'ye call it—they can reveal identities, they can——"