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Bunny peered out a little longer.
"No, I can't see the pony," he answered. "You come and look, Sue. The crack's big enough for both of us."
Sue stood beside her brother. She, too, saw the gypsy man stretched on the grass, and near him were some dogs.
"Splash isn't there," she said.
"No, maybe he's tied up in the woods," said Bunny. "I wish we could find him. Oh, I wish daddy knew we were here. He'd make the gypsies let us go, and he'd take Toby for us."
"Maybe he'll come and get us," suggested Sue, hopefully.
"Maybe," agreed her brother. "Oh, I wish we could see Toby!"
The children looked out as well as they could between the tent flaps. They dared not make the crack any wider for fear the man in front might see them. They saw gypsy men, women and children hurrying to and fro, and loading wagons. Some tents were being taken down.
"I guess they're moving," said Sue.
"They're afraid we'll tell the police on them -- that's what the woman said," remarked Bunny. "I guess they did steal our pony, and they're afraid they'll be arrested. Yes, they are moving the camp, Sue."
And this was just what the gypsies were doing. They were going away in a hurry, too. Every one, except the man on the grass in front of the tent where the children were held prisoners, seemed to be busy.
"Do you think they'll take us with them when they go?" asked Sue, after a bit.
"No, they wouldn't take us along," said Bunny.
"But gypsies do take children," went on Sue. "Don't you 'member that story about the little boy and girl that were tooken by the gypsies and had to live with them a long while, until they looked just like gypsies themselves?"
"That was in a book!" said Bunny. "They won't take us away. But I'd like to get out of this tent."
"Maybe we could, without the man seeing us," suggested Sue.
"If he didn't the dogs might," Bunny answered. "Oh, I wish we were in our pony cart now! We could ride away from the gypsies."
"I wish so, too!" said Sue, with a sigh.
Bunny looked out of the crack again.
"There's a dog with the man now," said the little boy. "But it isn't our Splash. We wouldn't dast go out the front of the tent, Sue. But I could untie the flap ropes; I know I could."
"Oh, maybe we could go out the back of the tent!" suddenly cried Sue. "There's nobody out there to watch us, maybe, and we could get out that way. Come on, Bunny! Let's do it!"
"Say! That's right!" Bunny quickly cried. "Come on, we'll try the back of the tent!"
As in Camp-Rest-a-While, there was a board floor in the gypsy tent, and the canvas sides, as well as the back and front, were fast to nails driven in the edges of the board floor. It was not very hard work for Bunny and Sue to slip off some of the rope loops from the nails. Then the cloth back of the tent could be rais...
"Come on, Sue!" whispered Bunny, when he had made a place big enough for him and his sister to get through. "Now we can get out and they won't see us!"
He went first, and Sue followed. But, to the surprise of the children, instead of finding themselves outside the tent, they saw that they were in a little wooden room which was built right against the tent. In fact, it was part of the tent, there being no wooden side against the back of the cloth house. Bunny and Sue h...
"Why, we didn't get out at all!" said Sue in surprise.
"No," said Bunny. "We didn't. But maybe we can get out of this cabin."
"Look out of the door and see if there is a man there, or any dogs," suggested Sue in a whisper.
Bunny looked through one of the cracks.
"It's right near the woods," he said. "I guess we can get out if we can open the door."
He pushed on it, and so did Sue, but, to their disappointment, they found it was locked on the outside.
"There's a window," Sue said, pointing to one rather high up, on one side of the cabin. "Maybe we can open that and crawl out, Bunny."
"Yes, we could, if we had something to stand on," said the little boy. "Let's look for something."
He went over to a pile of blankets in one corner of the cabin and lifted one. As he did so he gave a cry of surprise.
For there, in plain view, was a small red-and-yellow-striped box, and, at the sight of it, Sue exclaimed:
"Oh, is that the one Mr. Tallman had? Oh, Bunny, maybe it is!"
"Maybe!" cried the little boy. "Maybe it is!"
As he and his sister leaned over it they heard some one at the door of the cabin. There was a rattle of a key in a lock, and a voice said:
"I'll bring the box out, and then we can hurry away!"
Who was coming into the place where Bunny and Sue were?
Chapter XXV
To The Rescue
Suddenly the door of the cabin opened, and in came the same gypsy man who had stopped Bunny from loosening the rope by which Toby was fastened to the stake.
"Hello!" cried the man, in great surprise. "What are you young'uns doing here? Trying to run off, eh? Well, we'll soon stop that! Here, Sal!" he called, and the woman come running up.
"Ha! So they crawled out of the tent, did they?" she exclaimed. "I didn't think they'd be smart enough for that."
"And look what they uncovered!" added the man, as he pointed to the red-and-yellow box.
"That -- that's Mr. Tallman's box!" said Bunny boldly. "He was looking all over for it. That's what made him poor and he had to sell his pony -- 'cause some one took his red-and-yellow box. Now we can tell him where it is."
"Oh, you can, can you?" asked the woman. "Well, maybe you can if we let you, but I guess you won't! We'll have to take 'em with us now," she said to the man. "Otherwise they'll have the police right after us."