ix say:

"No, old chap. I'm sorry I can't come to play with you now. Some other
time, perhaps. There's trouble at home you know, and I'd better stay
around there."

Then Splash and Dix looked at each other for a little while, saying
never a word, as one might call it, only looking at each other. They
seemed to understand, however, for, with a final wagging of their tails,
away they ran, Dix back to the Ward home where the mother and the father
were grieving for their lost boy, and Splash on to the happy home of the
Browns.

"Now, Daddy, you can tell us about that auto trip we are going to take,
while mother is seeing to the supper," called Bunny as he pulled his
father toward a big armchair, while Sue clung to her father on the other
side.

"Not until after the meal," insisted Mr. Brown. "I want to tell it to
mother and you all at the same time. That will save me from talking so
much. Besides, I haven't yet told the police about missing Fred Ward."

Mr. Brown soon called the chief on the telephone wire. Being the
president of the police board, Mr. Brown often had to give orders.

In this case he told the chief about Fred running away, how long the
boy had been gone, and about the note saying he was going to join a
theater company.

"We'd better get some circulars printed, with the boy's picture on
them," said Mr. Brown to the chief. "These we can send to other cities.
And we'll notify the police by telephone. I'll be down to see you this
evening."

"All right," answered the chief. "I'll get right after this boy."

"And tell whoever catches him to be good and kind to him," said Mr.
Brown. "Fred is not a bad boy. He feels that he has not been treated
well, and he'll do his best to hide away. But a boy with a banjo, who is
crazy to play in a show, ought not be very hard to find."

"No, I think we'll soon pick him up," the chief said.

"Well, pick him up as soon as you can," said Mr. Brown.

"Pick him _up_!" repeated Bunny, who had been listening to his father's
side of the conversation. "Did Fred fall down?"

"No. 'Pick him up' is a police expression," explained Mr. Brown. "It
means find him, or learn where he is."

"Oh, I see," murmured Bunny. "Well, I hope they'll soon find Fred."

The talk at supper time drifted from the running away of the boy next
door, and what might happen to him, to the trip the Browns were to take
in the big car.

"Well, now are you ready to tell us?" asked Bunny, as he saw his