human
There! he's gone,
gpt
I'm glad. _Do_ you suppose he had anything to do with the robbery at Stresch & Potter's department store? They say the thieves got more than ten thousand dollars.
human
I don't know whether the lone pirate is one of them or not, laughed Dora;
gpt
That's heartless, sniffed Dorothy.
human
They say that a small boy helped the robbers, too. They had to push a boy through the wire screen they cut out, and he opened a cellar door to let the robbers in.
gpt
Don't I know that? And don't I know who is suspected, too?
human
Oh, Dora! Don't say it!
gpt
I don't say I believe it. But you know very well that Billy is up to all sorts of mischief.
human
But Billy Long is one of our own boys.
gpt
I know he goes to Central High. But all the boys who go to our school are not angelic.
human
Far from it,
gpt
And 'Short and Long' is a regular little _snipe_, sometimes!
human
But to rob a store!
gpt
He was seen around there the afternoon before. Why, I know that a policeman has been to his house looking for him, and nobody has seen Short and Long since Thursday night.
human
But the robbery was committed some time Tuesday night.
gpt
He wasn't suspected at first. Perhaps he thought nobody had noticed him helping the men in the afternoon.
human
If they were the men--those surveyors.
gpt
Of course they were! cried Dora.
human
The city engineer's office sent no men to run that street line. Those fellows were taking measurements right back of Stresch & Potter's building--and Short and Long was helping them. And, now, when the hue and cry is raised, he's gone.
gpt
Oh, Dora! It would be dreadful, sighed Dorothy.
human
One of our Central High boys.
gpt
And one that's always been just as full of mischief as an egg is full of meat,