“Him name Muskrat.  Much good in canoe and water.”

They saw the hermit put the two shiny knobs on the Indian’s hands.  Then Mr. Bixby turned a switch and the Indian let out a wild yell and sprang through the open door, crying: 

“Thorns and thistles!  He has stung me with bad medicine!  Wow!”

“I think I begin to see the trick,” said Mr. Brown.

“That’s what he did to me,” explained Tom, “but I didn’t see a Teddy bear or a toy locomotive.”

This time the hermit, disturbed by the sudden running away of the Indian, and by the voices outside his window, started toward the latter.

“Quick!  Some of you get to the door so he can’t get away,” called Mr. Brown, but Bixby did not seem to want to run away.  He stood in the middle of the room until Mr. Brown, Bunny, Sue and the others had entered.

“Oh, there’s my toy engine!” cried Bunny making a grab for it.

“And my Teddy bear!” added Sue.

“Look out, don’t touch them!” called Mr. Brown.  “He has fixed the dry batteries in the toys to a spark coil, which makes the current stronger, and he’s giving shocks that way.  Aren’t you?” he asked, turning to the hermit.

“Since you have found me out, I have,” was the answer.  “I admit I have been bad, but I am sorry.  I will tell you everything.  I used to be a man who went about the country with an electric machine, giving people electrical treatments for rheumatism and other pains.  I made some money, but my wife died and her sickness and burial took all I had.  Then my electrical machine broke and I could not buy another.

“However, I did manage to get a little one, run with dry batteries, and I began going about the country making cures.

“Then this place was left me by a relative.  I thought I could make a living off it with the help of a hired boy, so I got Tom.

“I found some Indians lived here, and, learning how simple they were and that they thought everything strange was ‘heap big medicine,’ as they called it, I thought of trying my battery on them.  First I tried it on Tom, and he yelled that I was sticking needles into him.  He did not understand about the electricity, and I did not try to explain.

“I remembered what your children had told me about having a toy train of cars that ran by electricity, and a Teddy bear with two lamps for eyes.  I knew these batteries, though small, would be strong, and just what I needed with what electrical things I had.  So I stole the toy train of cars and the Teddy bear.

“I was sorry to do it, but I thought if I could make enough money from the Indians I could buy new batteries for myself and give the children back their toys.

“But most of the Indians were afraid of the electrical current which felt like needles, and I could not get many of them to come back after they had once tried it.  So I made no money.

“Tom ran away, and then I stole Eagle Feather’s horse.  I thought maybe if I could sell the horse and get money enough to get a new machine that did not sting so hard, I could make money enough to buy the horse back.