“Yes’m, Momsie!  Both of ’em.  Where’s Daddy?”

“Oh, off seeing some men.  I believe there’s to be a meeting at our camp to-night to talk about your friend Tom and Mr. Bixby.”

“I hope they don’t send Tom back,” said Bunny.  “He knows everything about this lake.”

After supper several men came to Camp Rest-a-While.  They were some of the county officers.  Eagle Feather and some of the Indians were present, sitting by themselves, and Mr. Brown sat near Tom.

“May we stay and see what happens, Mother?” asked Bunny.

“I guess so.  I don’t know just what is going on, but I think your father is going to try to arrange matters so Tom will not have to go back to the hermit’s to live.”

“Hurray!” cried Bunny.  “And while daddy is talking, I hope he’ll ask everybody if they’ve seen my electric train.”

“And my Sallie Malinda,” added Sue.  “My nice ’lectric-eyed Teddy bear.”

For all the inquiries that had been made had not brought forth any trace of either of the children’s toys.  The man in whose barn Bunny had found one car, said he had seen no one hiding it in the hay.

“Daddy is going to say something!” whispered Sue.

“Hush!” cautioned her mother.

Just then Mr. Brown arose and looked at the men in front of him.

[Illustration:  TOM WADED IN THE MUD AND WATER TO GET THE LILIES. Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods. Page 233.]

CHAPTER XXV

THE MISSING TOYS

“Gentlemen,” began Mr. Brown, “I have asked you all to come to my camp to-night to settle some questions, and, if possible, to find out what has been going on around here.

“As I have told you, two rather costly toys, belonging to my children, have been stolen.  Eagle Feather’s horse has been taken away.  I know my children’s toys have not been found.  And I think, Eagle Feather, your horse is still missing?”

“Him no come back long time,” said the Indian.  “Stable all ready for him—­good bed straw, hay to eat.  He no come home.  Me t’ink somebody keep him for himself.”

“That’s what we think, too, Eagle Feather,” said Mr. Brown.

“Now there is one person I asked to come here to-night who is absent,” he went on.

“The hermit,” said some.

“Bixby,” said others.

“I think we all mean the same man,” said Mr. Brown.

“Now I have told you about this boy Tom, who was found by my children in a cave near the lake shore,” he continued.  “He was found crying, saying he was being stuck full of needles.  I have not been able to get more than that out of him.  He says Bixby made him take hold of two shiny balls, and then the needles pricked him.  I have my own opinion of that, but I’ll speak of that later.

“I asked Bixby here to-night, that we might talk to him.  I find that he has a right to hire this boy to work for him, and under the law to keep him all Summer.  So it seems that unless we can show that Bixby has treated Tom harshly he will have to go back.”