"I wish I were invisible," said Jimmy.
The children were walking along in the growing darkness.
"I'd be a burglar."
"It's wrong to steal!" cried Kathleen and Mabel together.
"Then I'd be a detective," said Jimmy.
"That's what I'll do,"
said Gerald, who really was invisible.
"Let's go to the police station and see if they need help."
Outside the police station was a notice board.
Two dogs had been lost.
So had a purse.
Gerald wasn't interested in any of that.
Another notice announced that a mansion had been burglarized.
Some silver candlesticks and serving dishes were stolen.
"I'll catch those burglars!" Gerald decided.
"There's Officer Johnson.
Go ask him what he knows about the crime."
The visible children talked to the policeman, but he didn't have much to say.
"Officer Johnson thinks he knows who did it.
But he needs proof," Jimmy reported back to Gerald.
"You're not much help," Gerald replied.
"You didn't even find out how or when the silver was taken.
Go home and eat your supper."
"What will you do about supper?"
Mabel asked Gerald as they started walking again.
"I'm hoping one of you will buy me some buns."
The children stopped outside the bakery, and Kathleen and Jimmy went inside.
"Oh!" Mabel suddenly cried.
"What's wrong?" asked Gerald.
"I just remembered I left the window open in the treasure room.
I have to go back right now.
My aunt will be so angry!
The treasure room door is locked from the inside.
She'll have to ask the gardener to get a ladder and climb through the window."
"Don't worry," Gerald said. "I can climb through the window."
They turned around while Jimmy and Kathleen continued home for supper.
"Late again!" exclaimed Mademoiselle when the two of them arrived.
"And where is Gerald?"
"Uh . . . he has a headache," said Jimmy.
"He went straight to bed."
"Poor boy. I'll bring him some supper," said Mademoiselle.
"No, no," said Kathleen quickly.
"He never eats when he has a headache."
"Oh well," said Mademoiselle. "Hurry up and eat your supper."
And she went back to reading some old letters.
Meanwhile Gerald and Mabel arrived at the castle.
Mabel knocked on the door the servants used.
"Oh Mabel!" cried her aunt as she opened the door.
"Thank goodness you're safe!"
She gave Mabel a big hug.
"I don't know what was wrong with me," said the aunt.
"Yesterday I didn't care anything about you.
The same thing happened when I got your note and when some children visited.
But this afternoon I suddenly awoke from my trance and realized you were gone.
It was awful!"
Mabel's aunt pulled her into the castle and shut the door.
"That was very strange,"
said Gerald, who was left outside in the dark.
"It seems like more magic to me."
Gerald began looking for the open window of the treasure room.
The castle gardens were so beautiful that he felt he was in another world.
"Everything looks so different at night," he thought.
Something white moved under a willow tree.
The creature had a goat's horns and legs, but the head and arms of a boy.
It stretched its legs, rolled on the grass, and then ran across the lawn.
The most amazing thing was that Gerald was not afraid.
There was still something white under the tree.
Gerald moved closer and saw a pedestal for a statue.
But nothing stood on it.
"The statues . . . ," he murmured.
Just then another statue walked out of the Temple of Flora and disappeared into some bushes.
"They come alive!"