TROUBLE AND SKYROCKET
You can imagine there was much excitement and some very frightened feelings in the hearts of all the children when the clerks in the store where the five and ten cent Christmas presents had been bought said Trouble was not there.
"But where can he be?" asked Janet, hardly able to keep back the tears.
"Perhaps he went out and walked back to the store where Uncle Toby is buying his things," suggested Lola. "Let's look there."
"I guess that's where he is all right," said Teddy.
But Trouble was not in the grocery store, and Uncle Toby, who had finished his shopping, was as much surprised and alarmed as were the children when told what had happened.
"I guess the little tyke may have walked out by himself and gotten into the auto," said Uncle Toby.
But Trouble was not in the big closed automobile. And then a frantic search began. People in the stores where Uncle Toby and the children had been lent their aid, and when after fifteen minutes it was sure that the little boy was not in the neighborhood, the constable was called on and the search made up and down the street.
"Well, we'll find him, of course," said Uncle Toby, speaking more hopefully than he really felt. "What happened, I suppose, is that he wandered out of the store, to find me, maybe, and he got in the wrong place. We'll look in every building along Main Street."
This was done, and the houses on side streets were visited, too, but without effect. Trouble seemed to have vanished completely and mysteriously.
By this time Janet was crying, as were the other girls, and the boys tried not to let the tears in their eyes be seen.
"Where can he be?" asked the Curlytops over and over again, when each store had been searched twice.
"I'll tell you what I think happened," said Uncle Toby. "Trouble wandered away from you, while you were buying your Christmas presents. He wandered out into the street and got confused. Maybe he started crying in the street, and some farmer and his wife, in their sled, may have taken him in to comfort him."
"But what would they do with him?" asked Ted.
"Some farmer and his wife picked Trouble up off the street and took him home with them," repeated Mr. Bardeen, as if he knew this was so. And he really believed it.
"Why would they do that?" asked Jan, with trembling lips.
"They may have thought Trouble was the child of some neighbor whom they knew, and they planned to take him home. Depend on it—that's what happened!"
"But how will we get Trouble back?" asked Ted.
"Why, the farmer, whoever he is, will find out his mistake, and he'll bring the little fellow back to town again," was the answer. "That's what will happen. But I'll get as many men as I can, and with the constable we'll inquire of all the farmers around here. In that way we'll get Trouble back quicker."
There were willing searchers, and soon the country around Crystal Lake was being searched by men and women in automobiles and sleds who inquired at each farmhouse for a little boy taken away by mistake.
But as night came and no Trouble had been found, the Curlytops and their playmates began to feel very sad indeed.
Uncle Toby decided to take the children home and leave them with Aunt Sallie in the cabin, while he kept on with the search.
"Trouble missing and Skyrocket gone!" thought Uncle Toby to himself, as he drove back in the automobile. "This will be a sad Christmas, when I meant it to be such a happy one."
But it would not be Christmas for two days, and much might happen in that time.
It was nearly dusk when the big automobile drew near the old deserted cabin of Newt Baker, from which the strange man had once been seen running away. Looking from the window on his side, Ted peered at the old shack, and as he did so he uttered a cry of surprise and wonder.
"What is it?" asked Uncle Toby, quickly bringing the machine to a stop, for he thought some one had opened a door and fallen out.
"It's Trouble! I saw him at the window just now! In there!" and Ted pointed to the old cabin.
"Trouble in there? It can't be!" said Uncle Toby.
But just then Janet set up a cry.
"Yes, he is, Uncle Toby! I saw him!"
Mr. Bardeen lost little time in jumping from the automobile. Followed by the children, he ran to the door of the cabin, and as he opened it he heard the barking of a dog mingled with the crying voice of Trouble. An instant later Skyrocket rushed out to greet his friends, and then Trouble came from an inner room, toddling into the arms of Janet.
"Oh, William! how did you ever get here?" cried Lola.
"And Skyrocket, too! Look! Here's our dog!" shouted Ted.
With the high voices of the children, the barking of Skyrocket, and the crying of Trouble, there was so much noise that no one heard footsteps coming from the room out of which the missing boy had rushed until suddenly a strange man stood on the threshold.
"Look!" cried Tom, glancing up at this man. "There's the tramp!"
And they all saw the same stranger who had rushed away from the cottage the time Uncle Toby went to the well to get water for the automobile radiator.
"What are you doing here?" asked Uncle Toby in a stern voice. "And did you try to kidnap him?" Mr. Bardeen pointed to little William, who was sobbing in Janet's arms. And as he saw this and thought what a lot of trouble seemed to have been caused by this man, Uncle Toby started toward him as if in anger.
"Don't hit me!" pleaded the man. "I'm in trouble! I've had a lot of trouble. I was in the war—and—but that was long ago—and—"
His voice was very faint, and as Uncle Toby walked toward him the man tried to run back into the room. But his foot slipped and he fell, striking his head heavily on the floor. Then he rolled over and lay very quiet.
"He's fainted, I guess," said Tom.
"Looks so," agreed Uncle Toby. "Well, we've found Trouble, anyhow. That's the big thing. I don't know how this man got him or what he intended to do with him. But I'm going to tell the police. I guess he'd better have a doctor, too," he added. "He's cut his head in his fall. Ted, you and Tom go to the next house," he went on. "There's a telephone there. Tell Mr. Hick to call up the police, let them know we have found the missing boy and have them send out a doctor. It's a long walk to Mr. Hick's place, but I guess you won't be afraid. Then come back here. I don't want to leave this man alone, as I'd have to do if we all went away in the auto."
"We'll go to the telephone," said Tom and Ted, and Harry went with them.
As soon as the boys started tramping through the gathering dusk to Mr. Hick's house, Janet quieted Trouble and got Skyrocket to stop barking. This last was hard because the dog was so overjoyed at being with his friends again. There was a broken rope around his neck, showing that he had been kept tied up since he had been taken away. But he seemed to have been well treated and fed.
"Can Trouble tell us what happened and how this man got him?" asked Uncle Toby of Janet, who was holding her little brother. The "tramp," as he was called, still lay where he had fallen in a faint.
Janet understood Trouble's baby talk better than any one else, and she soon had his story out of him. He had wandered out of the store, it seemed, and on the sidewalk in front had been spoken to by the man who had brought him to the lonely cabin. The tramp and Trouble rode out to the cabin in a farmer's sled, so the little boy said.
"I can understand how that might happen," said Uncle Toby. "Some farmer would be glad to give the man and Trouble a ride out into the country. And it might have been some farmer from a distance, who didn't know that no one lived here. Such a farmer wouldn't be surprised at Trouble and the man getting out here at the lonely cabin. Well, things are coming out all right, and maybe this tramp didn't intend to do anything mean. We'll have to wait until he gets better so he can tell us what happened."
The stranger was still lying very quiet on the floor of the lonely cabin. It was a long time before the three boys came back, but soon after them the constable and the doctor arrived. The doctor said the man was not badly hurt, but should have good care. And as it was thought he might have tried to kidnap Trouble he was put under arrest.
Of course the man himself did not know this, for he was still in a faint. The doctor said the blow on his head caused this. But he was taken away by the constable and the doctor to the doctor's own home, where he could be well cared for until he was well enough to be put in jail, for he was under arrest for having carried off Trouble.
Then the Curlytops and their playmates went on to Uncle Toby's cabin, a happy jolly crowd, now that all worry was removed. They had William with them, and also Skyrocket.
"But I wonder how that tramp got my dog?" mused Ted.
"He might have found him wandering in the woods," said Uncle Toby. But he did not really believe this. There was something queer about that tramp.