Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/206

 Gaylor, "and you never know what you ll have the luck to come across next time."

"I'm always afraid, when you stick your hand into places like that, that a snake will jump out and bite you," said Poppet.

"Snakes and rabbits don't live together so far as I've heard," returned Gaylor. "Jove! I ve got hold of something this time, for sure!" He began extricating his arm from the twisting embrace of the tree-roots, and an instant later Poppet saw that he had pulled out of the hole a metal thing, caked with earth; quite a small thing which he could almost hide in his hand. "Oh, what's that?" she asked eagerly.

"Nothing that would interest you much, I'm afraid," replied the detective, slipping the thing into one of his coat pockets, and carefully covering it over with the flap, as he pushed the thwarted fox terrier gently away.

"But you have turned quite pink, as if you were interested," said the child. "You might tell me what it is. It looks like one of Dad's tools."

That's all it is; a kind of tool," answered Gaylor. "But I'm fond of tools, and you're not. That's one of the differences between us, you see. Perhaps it was a tool of the wicked gnome's, that he opened the fairy chest with, and left when he'd got all the treasure." Gaylor pulled out his watch and looked at it. "Why it's time we were trotting home!" he exclaimed, as if surprised at the lateness of the hour. "And if you