They entered the library together and Mrs. O’Dell held the lamp while Ben searched along his own shelves for “Rodney Stone.” He found the book but he missed several others.
“Has the little girl any books upstairs?” he asked.
“No, she puts every one back in its place before supper, always.”
“I wonder if Uncle Jim has ‘Charles O’Malley’ and ‘Vanity Fair’ up in his room.”
“I’m sure that he hasn’t—but shall we go and see?”
They went. Uncle Jim was sound asleep. The missing books were not in his room. They searched every inhabited corner of the house but failed to find either “Charles O’Malley” or “Vanity Fair.”
“They were in their places yesterday,” said Ben.
“They must have been taken last night,” said his mother.
“And it was Red Lily who was in the house last night; the old dog and the pup were loose outside.”
“Yes.”