Janet decided to go and get Peter before all the excitement was over. He'd never, never forgive her if she didn't. So she flew upstairs at top speed, and shook him awake. "Peter! Come quickly! We've got horse-thieves in the stable! Tolly fought them, and now the police are here and Daddy and Mother and everybody's fighting in the stables!"
"Don't be silly! You've just had a bad dream!" said Peter, astonished and cross. "Go back to bed. Fancy waking me with a silly story like that!" And he turned over to go to sleep again. Janet shook him hard.
"Sit up, sit up!" she shouted. "Then you can hear the row. You'll miss all the excitement. Anyway. I'm going to watch from the window!"
By this time Peter began to think there might be something in what Janet was shouting about. So he leapt out of bed and ran to the window with her. Good gracious! What a row ... what shouts ... what bids and scuffles ... what barks from Scamper and excited neighs from the horses!
"Come on!" said Peter, and without waiting to put on his dressing-gown or slippers he fled downstairs, out into the yard, and into the stable. Whew, what an excitement!
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Most of the trouble was over now. But what a fight it had been! Tolly had gone for the thieves with a pitchfork, and made them dance in pain. They had tried to let out the horses, but the brave beasts had stood their ground, and Brownie had done quite a bit of snapping and kicking. The men were terrified of him. He had got one of them into a corner, and the man did not dare to move, and was glad when a sturdy policeman came up to handcuff him! "Take that horse away from me," begged the man. "He's just about broken my ankle with a kick, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's bitten my ear off."
"I hope he has," said the policeman, grimly, and pushed the man roughly into the next stall, where two other men had also been imprisoned. One had been lucked on the arm, and was nursing the wounded limb, his face angry and fierce. The third man had been knocked down when Tolly had flung himself on him, and had a badly cut head.
"Are the horses hurt?" Janet asked Tolly, who, breathless with the fight, was standing holding on to one of the thieves.
"No, Miss ... not hurt at all," panted Tolly. "Old Brownie's enjoyed the shindy. My, my ... the way he pranced about, and kicked out with those big hooves of his! I began to feel sorry for these horse-thieves! I was knocked down once, but old Brownie came up and almost snapped the man's arm off. Good old Brownie. He wasn't a bit afraid, Miss. He was clever too. He never so much as snapped at a policeman ... only at the thieves!"
With a lot of shoving and pushing the horse-thieves were taken to the police cars. They were difficult to handle, and, to Peter's delight, he saw that every thief had a good stout policeman sitting down hard on him. There certainly would be no escape for them!
"Everything seems very quiet suddenly," said Mother. "My word, what an adventure! What a good thing you were awake, Janet, and heard the thieves."
