Jiminies, we didn't know what to make of that man. He was nice and sociable, and he seemed to be always trying not to laugh, and everybody knows that fat people are good-natured. And he seemed kind of to like us, too. Then why didn't he let us go through his house? That was what _I_ wanted to know. If he had just been grouchy and ordered us off his place we wouldn't have been so surprised. But if he liked us well enough to go to some trouble on account of us, then why wouldn't he let us just go through his house? I said, "We should worry. It won't be the first roof I climbed over. Only I don't understand it, that's all." "It's a mystery," Pee-wee said. "Maybe he's got some kind of a plot. Hey?" "Maybe he just wants to see if we can make good," Westy said. Hunt said, "We'll give him a demonstration, all right." "Maybe he meditates treachery," the kid said. I guess he got those words out of the movies. "Well," I said, "we're here because we're here and we're going to stay here and see it through." Pretty soon the plot grew thicker. We could hear that man talking over the telephone in the house. He was saying, "_Yes, get here as soon as you can; a big haul_." "We're going to get hauled in," Pee-wee said. "He's calling up the police. What shall we do?" He looked frightened. I said, "Stay right here; we're not quitters." Then we could hear the man saying more. Gee williger, it had me guessing. He said, "Yes--yes. Oh, we could release them in a couple of months." "Did you hear what he said?" Pee-wee whispered. "They'll release us in a couple of months. Come on, let's get out of here. What do you think it means?" I said, "I don't know what it means. This man has me guessing. But we haven't done anything wrong. This is the Bee-line hike. Are we going to see it through or not?" "We are!" they all said. "All right," I said; "over the roof for us." Dorry said, "I guess if Warde Hollister saw us now he'd say we're up against a real adventure." "All he wants is to be a movie actor," Pee-wee said. "That's what he told me. He said scouts were just kids. I bet he'd have to admit that this is a dark mystery, all right." Dorry said, "I know that man's name all right, it's Copley. Often I see him at the station." "I knew he had something to do with cops," Hunt said. "I wonder how soon we'll know what's up his sleeve." "I wonder how soon he'll pass the cake," Pee-wee said. Anyway we didn't have to wait long for the refreshments. Mrs. Copley came out and passed around cake and cookies and things and she was nice and friendly. And while we were sprawling around on the porch eating, a man came around with a couple of ladders. Mrs. Copley said, "I'll just lay this plate of cookies on the table and you boys can help yourselves while you're waiting for Mr. Copley to come out." Then she put the plate on a little wicker table over near the end of the porch. After that she went in the house.