n dreaming or what?"

"What," I said; "you guessed right the second time."

I guess if it hadn't been for Westy maybe that fellow with the cap would
be up on the top of the wheel yet.

He said to the policeman, "I'll tell you how it was if these fellows
will keep still."

I said, "Let's have a large chunk of silence."

So then Westy told him all about our meeting Detective Pinchem and how
he was looking for a fellow that had robbed an auto party and how he had
stolen a boat and left it in the marshes. He told him all about what
happened at the old ferris-wheel and how I had found footprints there
and how they showed that some one had come from the river. Most all the
people that crowded around listening were serious. Two or three men said
they guessed it was the auto bandit all right. The policeman said they'd
soon find out.

A lot of people said they were going to see what happened and one or two
of the patrol wanted to go back because, one thing, you don't see
bandits captured every day. Maybe whole weeks might go by and you'd
never see one captured in a ferris-wheel. But that shows how you never
can tell. You might chase a bandit on a merry-go-round but you'd never
catch him.

"We should worry about the bandit," that's what I told the fellows.
"Because we've got troubles of our own. We've got to make Carson's Hill
yet and then the woods up the ridge and we'll have to go slow and use
our compass in there. Look at that big tree up there waiting for us," I
said. "It's got all dressed up for us since we started."

And, honest, it did look that way because it was all gold. But, anyway,
you'll find out in the next chapter that gold isn't the only color.
There are blue and green and yellow and strawberry and orange and banana
and grape-fruit and peaches and russet apples--those are my favorites.
Gee whiz, I don't know whether I'm talking about fruit or colors! But
one kind of vegetable I like, and that is onions.

Anyway, the color I was going to speak about is black. And believe me
the next chapter is the darkest one in this book.

CHAPTER XXIII

FOILED!

Most of the people went back to the park with the police department.
That girl had been listening to Westy telling the policeman about
everything and so now she said to our young hero:

"You don't call that binding a bandit with ropes, do you? With him up at
the top of the wheel and you down at the bottom."

The kid said, "Sure I do, that's dista