“And, Phyllis, I’ll tell you what else I’m going to do,” continued Roxanne, rocking and nibbling and smiling so that I would like to have eaten her up, from shabby shoes to the curl down the back of the neck.  “When I went down to the grocery before breakfast to get the things to console Uncle Pompey after we had told him about the robbery, I saw the loveliest blue muslin in the window at Mr. Hadley’s store, and I ’in going to buy it to-day and make me a dress for commencement.  I had expected to wear the family linen, but Douglass says let’s spend all his salary this month in having things we want; so the blue muslin will be my part.  Do you think blue will be prettier than pink, or would you have—?”

But just here we were interrupted by Tony’s appearance at the door, and the expression on his face matched the one I had had of condolence as I came over through the garden; but he has known Roxanne longer than I have and boys’ minds are supposed to be stronger than girls’—­privately I don’t think they are—­so he accepted the situation and the cake with more grace than I had.

However he was cruelly insistent about questioning and talking about the robbery.  The Idol had told him about it as Tony walked out to the furnace with him, which is a Saturday habit with Tony as the Jonathan to Mr. Douglass.  Tony had known all along about the steel, but was surprised to know that I had been able to keep it to myself.  I suppose it is best never to notice an unconscious insult, and boys are often that way with girls.

“Doug and I both think that this is not the first time the robber has been in or around the shed,” Tony said thoughtfully.  “Do you remember that shadow we saw dodge through the yard the evening we came from the Raccoon outing, Phyllis?”

“Yes,” I answered; and the uneasy feeling I had about Mr. Rogers that night so I couldn’t sleep slightly tipped the rosy cloud I had decided to climb upon and stay upon forever.  “But it may have been Uncle Pompey, like I thought it was,” I added hopefully.

“Well, Doug told me to come and nose around and see what I could find in the way of clues.  Want to come out and have a look with me?  You two Palefaces might as well learn something about gumshoeing a villain now as ever.”

Lots of boys, and grown-up people for that matter, like to keep interesting things and doings to themselves; but Tony Luttrell is as generous in disposition as he is in mouth.

We went out to the shed with him, and Lovelace Peyton went too, but refused to come in the shed door because he said he was still on honor to the Idol, no matter what Roxanne said, not to come nearer than one yard, which was marked with sticks all around the shed.  It was funny to see the snake-doctor lean across the dead-line and crane his sweet little neck to try to hear and see Tony inside the shed.  And after Tony had squinted at and touched and nosed almost every inch of the shed, he came out with his hands in his pockets.