Peter shook his head. "I guess you're right, Jimmy Skunk. I guess you're
right," he said.

"Of course I'm right. There, now!" Jimmy held up one hand to warn Peter to
keep still. Sure enough, there was Sammy Jay's voice, way over in the
alders beside the Laughing Brook, and it was screaming "Thief! thief!
thief!"

They all heard it. Sammy Jay heard it, too, and scratched himself to be
sure that he was awake and sitting there in the big pine-tree.

"It's my voice, and it isn't my voice, for I haven't made a sound, and it's
over in the alders while I'm here in my own big pine-tree," muttered Sammy
Jay to himself. "I'm glad I kept awake, but--

"Maybe I'm going crazy!
My wits are getting hazy!
That's surely me,
Yet here I be!
Oh, dear, I sure am crazy!"




IX


THE MYSTERY GROWS

"Can a body be a body,