“A policeman?”

“Yas, sah!”

“A policeman for me?”

“Yas, sah!”

“Dear me!” Mr. Bobbsey murmured.  “What can be the matter now!”

“Oh, Daddy!” squealed Flossie, at once filled with excitement.

“What do you suppose——­” began Bert, and then stopped in the midst of his speech.

“Maybe he has found your lost coat,” suggested Nan, as her father put Flossie and Freddie down in an easy chair.

CHAPTER VII

THE CRYING BOY

There had been so much excitement over the strange “animal” which Snoop had under the table that, for a time, the Bobbsey twins had forgotten about their father’s coat having been taken at the picnic.  Nor had they remembered about the missing lap robe.  But now, as Nan said this, every one—­except perhaps the smaller twins—­thought about the things that were gone.

“Oh, that’s so!” exclaimed Bert, following what his sister said.  “Maybe the policeman has come to bring back your lost coat, Daddy!”

“I hope he has,” said Mr. Bobbsey.  “Not only do I not want to lose the coat, for a suit of clothes isn’t of much use without a coat, but I don’t like to lose the money and papers.”

“No, sah, Mr. Bobbsey, de p’liceman didn’t hab no coat,” said Dinah.

“He didn’t?” remarked Mr. Bobbsey.

“No, sah.  He didn’t.”

“Well then, I can’t imagine what he wants,” went on the father of the Bobbsey twins.  “Ask him to come in, Dinah.”

In came the policeman.  He was one the children knew, from having often seen him pass the house.

“Good evening, Mr. Bobbsey,” said the officer, the light flashing on his brass buttons.  “I came up to see about a lap robe stolen from your auto.”

“Did you find it?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.  “I’m so glad!  And did you find Mr. Bobbsey’s coat, also?”

“Why, no, Mrs. Bobbsey, I didn’t,” answered Policeman Murphy.  “I didn’t know about any lost coat.  I was just sent up from the police station to inquire about the robbery of a lap robe.  Somebody telephoned down that a policeman was wanted because a lap robe had been stolen.  That’s why I came up—­because of the telephone message.”

“Telephone!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.  “I didn’t telephone for you, Mr. Murphy.”

“Neither did I,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.  “Perhaps it was one of the children,” and she looked at Bert and Nan.

The older Bobbsey twins shook their heads.  Flossie and Freddie, though they knew how to telephone, would hardly have thought of calling up the police.  But they were asked about it.

“Nope, we didn’t do it,” Flossie said.  “Though we likes p’licemans; don’t we, Freddie?”

“Yeppie,” he answered sleepily.  “When I grows up I’m goin’ be a p’licemans or a firesmans—­I forget which.”

“He’s sleepy,” laughed the officer.  “But what about this, Mr. Bobbsey?  Some one must have telephoned.”