"What’s wrong," Mrs. Silver asked, and looked past the boys into the house, "What happened?"

"We don’t know," Frank replied, "Joe and I just got back from finishing some work. When we returned, we found this."

"What were they looking for," Mr. Silver asked, "We have nothing of real value."

"I think I know," Joe suddenly said and ran upstairs. Frank looked confused for a second, but followed his brother up anyway. Joe stopped in front of Vicki’s room and opened the door.

It appeared to have been more thouroughly searched than the rest of the house. Once again, books were scattered across the room as well as everything else. Nothing looked to be missing though.

Joe immediately turned to the desk and looked carefully at the wall. Then he pushed on a certain spot and it pushed out. Reaching inside, he found the small box, which held the ring and opened it. It was gone.

"How did you find out about this," Frank asked, looking over at Joe.

"Vicki opened it earlier," Joe replied, "and told me it’s where she hid the ring. Well, it’s gone now. I guess they got it back."

"Gone," Frank exclaimed, "We just had it yesterday afternoon." He paused, "They sure didn’t waste any time."

"You got that right," Joe told him, "They took down every book and pulled all the furniture away from the wall to look behind it. I guess they really wanted this ring."

"And now they got it," Frank finished for him, "I suppose we better call the police now."

"I already did," Mr. Silver said from the doorway, "Now, would you boys like to explain what’s going on? I don’t know about you, but I like knowing why my house was searched."

Just then the sound of sirens approached the house. Two police cars stopped out front and officers climbed out. Chief Stevens was one of the first inside the house.

"He’s going to love to see us," Joe whispered to Frank, "Imagine how happy he’ll be when he sees that we are here."

"I can imagine it already," Frank whispered back, "and I don’t want to be here if it’s true. What do you say to getting out of here before he sees us?"

"Too late," Chief Stevens greeted them, "Hello boys, we need to have a talk."

Vicki and C. J. drove back towards the lake. They knew it was a little late to go over, but they wanted to see if Frank and Joe were there. It seemed that luck wasn’t with them that night though. The van swung to one side as the front right tire blew out. The lake was just ahead, so they turned into the parking lot.

"That couldn’t be good," Vicki remarked, jumping out, "Let’s see if we can fix it." She headed for the back of the van and opened the trunk.

"The boys aren’t here," C. J. said, turning back to Vicki, "I guess we’ll have to do it ourselves then."

"We won’t have to," Vicki replied, "You’re out of spare tires. We must have used the last one a few weeks ago. I guess we’ll have to call the boys to help us out. They drove over right?"

"Yeah," C. J. answered, "Why?"

"We’ll probably have to use one of theirs," Vicki told her friend, "I’ll go call them now." Before she could dial though, her cell phone rang.

"Hello," she asked, "Hi dad, what do you need…Well, I wish we could come over, but we can’t right now. Our tire blew…Just send Frank and Joe to get us and they can tell us everything on the way…They’re busy? Then we’ll have to wait until later. We’ll just go skating for now."

"Can either of them come," she asked one last time, "Joe will be here in thirty minutes? All right, but we’ll be on the ice, okay? Bye."

"I’m guessing that we’re going skating," C. J. asked as Vicki hung up, "It’s the only thing we can do for now I suppose." More quietly she asked, "Do you still have it?"

Vicki nodded, "It’s in my pocket. I didn’t want to chance anything after what happened yesterday." She pulled out the small box and opened it. The same diamond and ruby ring sat there. She put it back up, "Come on, let’s go skating."

The girls headed out on the ice. After about twenty minutes, they were looking out more for Joe to arrive. Vicki suddenly stopped and grabbed C. J’s arm.

"What is it," C. J. asked, turning to Vicki, alarmed and startled.

"That man," Vicki whispered, "He looks like some of the descriptions that Joe gave me." The man turned just then and looked them straight in the eyes. With that, he charged forward, headed for the girls. Without even noting the curious stares, he shoved both girls over. Then he walked to Vicki and before she could do anything, grabbed the ring from her pocket.