“Going to get into the house again and ransack it, I suppose!” thought Dick, in a rage. He considered the shadowy figure by the window. It didn’t look big. It must be a small man — one that Dick could tackle and bring to the ground. He could yell loudly for Julian, and maybe he could hold the fellow down till Julian came.

“And then perhaps we could do a little kidnapping, and a little bargaining, too,” thought Dick grimly. “If they hold George as a hostage, we’ll hold one of them, too! Tit for tat!”

He waited till the shadow left the window, and then he pounced. His victim went down at once with a yell.

Dick was surprised how small he was — but how he fought! He bit and scratched and heaved and kicked, and the two of them rolled over and over and over, breaking down Michaelmas daisies in the beds, and scratching legs and arms and faces on rose bushes. Dick yelled for Julian all the time.

“Julian! JULIAN! Help! JULIAN!”

Julian heard. He tore out at once. “Dick, Dick, where are you? What is it?”

He flashed his torch towards the shouting and saw Dick rolling on top of somebody. He ran to help at once, throwing his torch on the grass so that both hands were free.

It wasn’t long before they had the struggling figure firmly in their grasp and dragged it, wailing, to the back door. Dick recognized that wailing voice! Good gracious — no, it couldn’t be — it couldn’t be Jo!

But it was! When they dragged her inside she collapsed completely, sobbing and wailing, rubbing her scratched and bruised legs, calling both boys all the names she could think of. Anne and Joan looked on in complete amazement. Now what had happened?

“Put her upstairs,” said Julian. “Get her to bed. She’s in a awful state now. So am I! I wouldn’t have lammed her like that if I’d known it was only Jo.”

“I never guessed,” said Dick, wiping his filthy face with his handkerchief. “My word, what a wild-cat! See how she’s bitten me!”

“I didn’t know it was you, Dick; I didn’t know,” wailed Jo. “You pounced on me, and I fought back. I wouldn’t have bitten you like that.”

“You’re a savage, deceitful, double-dealing little wild-cat,” said Dick, looking at his bites and scratches. “Pretending you know nothing about the man who gave you that note — and all the time you’re in with that crooked lot of thieves and kidnappers, whoever they are.”

“I’m not in with them,” wept Jo.

“Don’t tell lies,” shouted Dick, in a fury. “I was up in a tree when you came and took that parcel from under the stone — yes, and I followed you right to that car — and followed you back again! You came back here to steal again, I suppose?”

Jo gulped. “No, I didn’t.”