," and he laughed so heartily that Sue
slipped from his lap.

Bunny and Sue laughed also, and they liked Captain Ross.

"Here we are now, all shipshape and Bristol fashion!" went on the
captain as the motor boat towed the _Fairy_ back to the wharf. This time
Captain Ross tied the rope himself to make sure it would not come loose
again.

"May we stay on the boat?" asked Bunny, as his father started back up to
his office with Captain Ross.

"Yes, you may play on board until it's time to go home to supper,"
promised Mr. Brown. "But don't fall overboard and don't go adrift
again."

"No, we won't!" said Bunny.

"If you do I'll never tell you any more riddles," laughed Captain Ross.

"Oh, what fun we'll have when the boat goes to Christmas Tree Cove and
takes us there!" shouted Sue, as she and Bunny played about the deck.

The children had almost forgotten about their mother's lost ring and
pocketbook, to say nothing of the five-dollar bill. But that afternoon,
when they were going home with their father, they saw something that
brought the loss back to their minds.

They were walking along the street with Daddy Brown when, all of a
sudden, Bunny cried:

"There he is! There! There!"

"Who?" asked his father.

"That big dog that took mother's pocketbook in his mouth and bounced
away with it!" was the answer. "There he goes!"

Bunny pointed out a large, yellowish-brown dog just running around the
corner of the next street. Then Bunny pulled his hand from his father's
and raced after the strange animal.

"I'll make him show me where mother's ring and pocketbook are!" cried
Bunny as he ran down the street.

CHAPTER VII

THE SLEEP-WALKER

So quickly did Bunny Brown pull away from his father to run after the
strange dog that Mr. Brown had no chance to call to the little boy to be
careful. Sue, however, who had hold of her father's other hand, seemed
anxious.

"Maybe the dog will bite Bunny!" exclaimed the little girl. "Sometimes
Splash used to growl if you took a bone away from him, and maybe this
dog will growl if Bunny takes the pocketbook away from him."

"That might happen if the dog had mother's pocketbook," replied Mr.
Brown. "But I didn't see him have it, and I don't believe Bunny knows,
for sure, whether or not this is the same dog."

"Maybe if he hasn't the pocketbook in his mouth he has it hid somewhere,
and he's going to dig it up just as Splash used to dig up the bones
he hid," went o