Binky's heart filled with compassion at the sight of the sobbing girl, whose hopes for the future had apparently been crushed by a string of sparkling diamonds. Yet he could still think of nothing helpful to say.

"That's only one necklace," he pointed out. "Where are the other two?"

Gritting her teeth and swallowing her tears, Molly slammed the metal box closed and fastened the latches. Jumping to her feet, she grabbed Binky by the arm and dragged him from the room. "Come on," she ordered. "We're going to the police. Now."

The box containing the necklace rattled in Molly's hand as she and Binky fled from the house with all the haste they could muster. The morning sun hailed them from the cloudless sky, but they paid no heed.

"Shouldn't we tell your mom?" Binky suggested.

"No time!" Molly barked.

Despite being clad in a dress, she remained in the lead as they ran the seven blocks to the police station. No more words were exchanged between them. Throughout the journey Binky feared that armed criminals, possibly including Molly's father, would ambush them and seize the diamonds.

They were half a block from the station when they saw a man stepping out of its entrance. A short, goateed cat man in a flannel suit.

"Mansch!" shrieked Molly.

The cat man became alarmed at the sight of the two frightened kids and the box Molly clutched in one hand. He leaped into hot pursuit.

"Run, Binky!" cried Molly, and the pair turned and sped down the street.

"Come back here!" shouted Mansch as he followed. His short legs provided him only a slight speed advantage over Binky and Molly.

Yet it was sufficient, as Molly saw the gap between them narrowing each time she looked over her shoulder. "He's gaining!" she exclaimed.

Only sidewalks and houses surrounded them in every direction. There were no trees or hills to hide behind. They were already exhausted from the quick trip to the police station. Mansch would catch them before long.

Then Binky had an idea. He wondered why it hadn't occurred to him earlier. The cat man wasn't much taller than they were, and didn't look especially strong.

"Are you...thinking...what I'm thinking?" he panted.

They ran for a few more seconds, their sore feet pounding the sidewalk. Mansch was almost upon them, and appeared ready to pounce.

Molly gripped the metal box as tightly as she could. "Now!" she bellowed.

The two kids stopped running, whirled, and flailed at Mansch with their fists. Binky's left hook hit its mark, striking the cat man's jaw and causing him to wail in pain. Molly, with her free fist, struck him in the lower torso.

Battered but unintimidated, Mansch raised his fists and sneered as if welcoming the kids to attack. Binky lunged forward with a right hook aimed at his face, but he deftly blocked it and countered with a palm strike to the boy's nose. Feeling the sharp pain and the blood trickling over his lips, Binky groaned and stepped backwards, his will to fight shattered.

Mansch, his hands outstretched, advanced on the powerless Molly. He seemed oblivious to the stream of blood on the corner of his own mouth. "Give me the box, girl," he commanded. "I don't want any trouble."

Seeing no point in running or fighting, Molly could only stand motionless and wait for the inevitable...

"What's going on here?" came a man's voice. To her relief, two male police officers were running toward the scene of the battle.

Mansch appeared calm and unruffled as the men in blue confronted him. Binky, stinging from his injury, drew a handkerchief from his pocket and started to mop the blood from his face. Molly clung to the box, hesitant to allow anyone to take it from her.

"You arrived just in time," said Mansch to the officers in a gravelly but friendly voice. "If you open the box the girl is holding, I believe you'll find something valuable and stolen."

One of the officers held out his hand to Molly. "Let's have a look."

The rabbit girl, knowing the foolishness of resisting officers of the law, slowly passed the metal box into the policeman's hand. Intrigued by the rattling sound that emanated from the box as he straightened it, the officer unhooked the latches and raised the lid. "Well, I'll be a..." he blurted out in astonishment.

"You don't understand," Molly pleaded. "It was in my dad's..."

"Wait a biddit." The bloody-nosed Binky raised a hand to silence Molly, then turned to face Mansch. "How did you doe the decklace was id the box?"

"That's not important," said Mansch gruffly.

"We'll have to ask the three of you to come with us to the station," said the officer as he carefully closed the box.

"With pleasure," said Mansch. "I only left there a minute ago. I was offering my assistance in recovering the stolen necklaces."

As Molly pondered on Binky's question, it all became clear to her...

"I get it now," she snapped at Mansch. "You were afraid my dad would implicate you, so you sneaked into our house last night and planted the necklace."

"Ridiculous," the cat man muttered, rubbing his swollen jaw.

"Come along, kids," ordered one of the officers.

"And I'll bet you lured him out of town with a phony job interview, too," Molly snarled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Mansch insisted.

The three were bundled into the back of a nearby police car, and driven the short distance to the station. The officers on duty greeted Mansch as if he were a familiar friend, and placed Binky and Molly in a locked room together.

The station being an old building, the room lacked air conditioning. It soon became uncomfortably hot for the two worried children. They had no way to entertain themselves other than staring at the pictures on the walls of graduating classes from the police academy. The wooden chairs chafed the skin of their posteriors.

"Dad's innocent," said Molly glumly. "He's got to be."

"Unless he was working with Mansch," added the swollen-nosed Binky. "Either way, Mansch is guilty."

"He got away once," said Molly with determination. "He won't get away again, if I can help it."

"But how do we prove Mansch was the culprit?" Binky wondered. "We're just kids, and not very bright kids at that."

"I don't know," Molly lamented. "Mansch is smart. He'll twist things to make it look like my dad stole the diamonds."

"Then maybe we should concentrate on proving your dad's innocence," Binky suggested.

"You're right," Molly commended him. "Then my dad would be free to implicate Mansch in the other robbery."

"It's just a question of how," remarked Binky.

The two kids sat in the hot room, racking their brains for ideas.

"I've got it," Molly spoke up.

"What?"

"I'll tell them I stole the diamonds," she proposed.

Binky's eyes widened. "That's crazy!"

"The worst they can do is send me to juvie," said Molly.

"They won't believe you," Binky insisted.

"I'll tell them my dad taught me everything he knows about being a thief," Molly went on. "It's an open and shut case. The police caught me with the stolen necklace. How can you argue with that?"

"Let me do it," Binky pleaded. "I'll confess to stealing the diamonds, and I'll go to juvie."

"Don't be silly," Molly chided him. "If they won't believe me, they sure as heck won't believe you. Besides, you've been to juvie already. I haven't."

"You're not going to juvie without me," Binky proclaimed.

"Fine," said Molly, "if that's the way you want it. You can be my accomplice."

"Fine."

Having decided on a course of action, Binky and Molly had nothing left to do but gaze into each other's eyes.

"Binky?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you want me to go to juvie without you?"