Well, that may be all right, kids, but I've been instructed to look out for suspicious characters this morning, and I guess you'd both better step around to the station with me." He smiled.

"I don't suppose the Chief'll keep you very long, but he might like to ask you some questions.

See ?" The boys nodded not over-enthusiastically and accompanied the officer.
The police station was but a half-block distant on a side street and their captor ushered them up the steps and into a room where a tall, bushy-whiskered man with much gold on his shoulders sat writing at a flat-topped desk.
"Chief, here's a couple of youngsters I met on Main Street just now.

I guess they're all right, but I thought maybe you'd like to look 'em over." The Chief nodded and proceeded to do so.

He had a most disconcerting stare, had the Chief, and the boys began to wonder if they had not, perhaps, after all performed that burglary! "Well, boys," he said finally, "where do you belong ?" "Brimfield Academy," replied Amy.
"Running away, are you ?" "No, sir, we're trying to get back.