"If they'd only let him loose this time, I'm sure he would never steal again," the child staunchly maintained. But in spite of her faith in him, the "candy man," as the children continued to call him, was sent to the county seat for trial, convicted, and sentenced to a long term in prison.
"He shouldn't have stolen if he didn't want to go to prison," asserted Billiard virtuously. "If he hadn't robbed the bank, he never would have had to hide in the haunted house and we wouldn't have found them there."
"But as 'tis," added Toady, "they paid Billiard and me each fifty dollars for finding them. I mean the town paid us."
"Though you didn't discover whether there are any ghosts or not," said Susie much disappointed.
"Who cares?" retorted the boys, drawing out their little hoard of gold pieces and gloating over them. "I wish there were more haunted houses if they'd all pay us as well as this one did. Now, what shall we do with our money?"
CHAPTER XIV
THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
"Only two weeks more of vacation," sighed Tabitha, sinking wearily into the hammock one August afternoon, and looking longingly away to the west where the train was just puffing into view. "I never dreamed we should be here all summer when I offered to take care of the kidlets for Mrs. McKittrick."
"Are you sorry?" asked Gloriana, glancing up from her sewing in surprise at the tone of Tabitha's voice.