“Hurry up, fellows!” he cried excitedly. “Get your clothes on and come down. There’s something doing.”
“What is it?” they asked in chorus.
“Never you mind,” answered Jack, swelling with a sense of his importance. “You get a move on and come down.”
They slipped into their clothes and in less than three minutes were down beside him. He made them beg a little before he finally gave up his secret.
“The store was robbed last night,” he said importantly.
“The store!” exclaimed the boys. There was no need of specifying, as there was only one store in Oldtown of any importance.
“How did it happen?” asked Fred.
“Did they get much?” questioned Teddy.
“They don’t know yet,” replied Jack to both questions. “A fellow came past our house a little while ago, and he called to my dad, who was working in the garden, that when Cy Briggs went to open up, he found that the front door was already open and everything inside was all scattered about. He can’t tell yet just how much was stolen, but the safe was broken into and everything in it was cleaned out. Cy is awful excited about it, and they say he’s running around like a hen with her head cut off. Get a wiggle on now, and let’s get down there.”
The boys could not remember when anything like a robbery had happened before in the sleepy little town, and they were all afire with excitement.