Grandpa Martin, when he came up and heard what had
taken place. "I wonder if any of those----"

Then he stopped talking and looked at the children's mother in a queer
way. She nodded her head, glanced down at the Curlytops and Hal, and put
her finger across her lips as your teacher does in school when she wants
someone to stop whispering.

Hal saw what Mrs. Martin did, but neither Jan nor Ted noticed, for they
were running around looking for any of the blue stones that might have
been scattered from Trouble's playhouse.

"Never mind," said Mother Martin. "I'll find you something else to play
with, Trouble. You shall have a nice ride with Nicknack. You'll take
him, won't you, Jan and Ted?"

"Yes," they answered.

"I want my p'ayhouse!" sobbed Baby William, and for a time he made a
fuss about his missing blue stones.

"I guess I know what happened to them," said Hal in a whisper to Jan and
Ted when their mother had taken Trouble into the tent to find something
with which to amuse him.

"What?" asked Ted in a whisper.

"The tramps!" exclaimed Hal, looking over his shoulder to make sure no
one but his two little friends heard him. "That's what your grandfather
was going to say the time he stopped so quick. Your mother didn't want
him to speak of them. But I'm sure the tramps took the blue stones from
Trouble's castle."

"What would they do with 'em?" Ted demanded.

"There's gold in 'em!" whispered Hal, more excited than ever now.
"There's gold in those blue stones, and the tramps know it. That's what
they've been looking for, and when Trouble had 'em all in a nice pile
made into a playhouse, the tramps came along in the night and took 'em
away."

"Oh, do you s'pose it could happen that way, really?" asked Jan, her
eyes big with wonder.

"Course it could!" said Hal, growing more excited all the while. "I
remember now, gold doesn't always look yellow when you find it, the way
it does in a watch or a ring. Sometimes gold is inside stones and they
have to melt 'em in the fire to get the gold out. My nurse at the
Crippled Home read me about it. And there was gold in the blue stones.
That's why the tramps came and got 'em--I mean _them_," and he corrected
himself. "They told me not to say 'em,'" he added with a smile.

"Do you really think the blue stones had gold in 'em--them?" asked Ted.

"Yes, I do! Else why would the tramps want them? They came last night
and took Trouble's castle--every stone, and now they