Vevi shrugged and did not answer. She remembered that Hanny had said she thought the FBI man might be investigating Mrs. Gabriel. But what could the woman have done wrong? Riding along so comfortably in the big, powerful car, Vevi found herself liking Mrs. Gabriel a tiny bit. The next moment, though, the feeling was gone. Mrs. Gabriel spoke very harshly. “A Federal investigator, I’ll warrant! The snoop!” At the outskirts of Rosedale, Mrs. Gabriel pulled up at the curb. “You will have to get out here,” she said shortly. “I can’t take you any farther.” Vevi was surprised for she had expected that Mrs. Gabriel would carry her at least to within a few blocks of her home. She began to suspect that the woman had picked her up only so that she might ask questions. “Thank you for bringing me this far,” Vevi nevertheless said politely. “I can walk the rest of the way. It is only six or eight blocks.” Mrs. Gabriel swung open the car door, impatiently waiting for the little girl to alight. “Oh, my tulip bulbs!” Vevi exclaimed, nearly forgetting them. She picked up the bag from the floor, and started to thank Mrs. Gabriel again for the ride. Before she could do so, the woman drove rapidly away. Vevi watched the car until it was out of sight. As far as she could see, Mrs. Gabriel did not turn off the main highway. “She could have taken me farther, but she didn’t want to,” Vevi thought resentfully. “She just wanted to get rid of me.” Picking up the bag of tulip bulbs, the little girl trudged slowly on toward home. The sack seemed heavier than ever now. Before she had gone half a block, it seemed to her that her arm would break. Vevi paused beside a fence to rest. She noticed that the canvas bag had the numerals 67543 stamped on the canvas. Also in black letters were printed the name of a city in Holland. “That’s funny,” reflected Vevi. “I thought Hanny gave me an old bag without any markings on it. I guess I didn’t notice very well.” Picking up the bag once more, she started on. Every few yards she had to shift it to the other hand. Even so, she began to wish she never had tried to carry the bulbs home. “I should have waited for Mr. Van Der Lann,” she thought. “I never knew culls could be so heavy.” Now the joke actually was on Vevi. Though she did not suspect it, the bag of bulbs Hanny had given her was at this moment being carried away in Mrs. Gabriel’s car. Unknowingly, the little girl had picked up another bag in exchange. The mistake was certain to cause a great deal of trouble for Mrs. Gabriel, but of this, Vevi was blissfully unaware. _Chapter 14_ MR. PIFF’S TROUBLES “Mother, how can the Brownie Scouts have a tulip bed--one that will grow fast?” Vevi asked the question at the breakfast table. It was the morning after Mrs. Langley’s flower show and she still felt rather tired.