“Are the police after us?” asked one tramp.
“Yes, I guess so,” answered the red-haired one who had the jewel box. “We’d better hide this stuff, too! If they catch us with it we’ll have to go to jail. We’ll hide it as soon as we get to the woods!”
And so the tramps ran on, never once looking back. If they had looked back they would have seen it was only a small boy chasing them, and not two or three policemen. But that is often the way with persons who do wrong. Their own fears scare them.
“Hi there! Hold on! Stop!” cried Bobbie. But the tramps did not stop. They only ran the faster toward the woods. And, finally reaching the forest, the red-haired tramp looked around for a place to hide the box of jewelry.
“I’ll put it in this hollow tree!” he said to the other tramps, as, reaching a big chestnut tree, he saw a hole in the trunk. “I’ll hide the jewelry here and, when the police go, we can come back and get it out again.”
So he thrust the box of gold and silver jewelry, with Millie’s bracelet in it, into the hollow of the tree. Then the tramps ran on through the woods, and scattered, some going one way and some another, still thinking the police were after them.
But it was only Bobbie, and the little boy, seeing that the tramps were fast running away from him, soon gave up the chase.
“I guess I’ll go back to Millie’s grandmother’s house,” said Bobbie to himself. “Maybe she’s come back. If she has I’ll get the sugar and tell her about the tramps. If she isn’t at home I’ll go and tell my mother.”
Now all this time Toto was wondering what it all meant. He had seen the bad, ragged tramps break into the house, and he had seen them rush out, and Bobbie chasing after them. But the beaver did not know what it was all about. However, being very curious, as are most wild animals, Toto wanted to find out. So when Bobbie began to run Toto slowly followed after, taking care, however, to keep in the shadow of the bushes and trees.
Thus it happened that when Bobbie turned back, after he had lost sight of the tramps in the woods, he saw Toto ambling along.