by Sophie May
CHAPTER V
A BIT OF ADVICE FROM A STRANGER
"Is there no way you can _make_ that man talk?" Billy Worth asked ChiefFobes. The boys and the officer were again in the latter's office.
"I suppose I can if you leave it to me, but I can't if you don't," Mr.Fobes answered. "Look 'e here now. That fellow's in here for ten days.Plenty of time yet to make him loosen up, but it ain't goin' to do nogood. What could he have had to do with swipin' your car? Nothin',that's all. Might as well think he picked it up and shoved it in hispocket! There's nothin' to it. He's a bum, that's all, an' is havin'some fun tryin' to make us believe he does know something about yourautomobile."
The two boys looked downcast. "Says his name is Coster," the officerwent on. "Belongs nowhere in particular. So much he told me when hefirst was in here. Yer basket he picked up in the road, he now says, an'he don't deny eatin' yer lunch an' sleepin' in the preacher's barn. An'that's all he does know about your automobile. What's more, it stands toreason, too. From any standpoint of the law ye can pick or choose, if hetook your auto, what could he have did with it?"
"Why has he been so interested, part of the time, anyway, in finding outif there's a man named Smith, or anybody, looking for him?" Billy asked.
"They all act that way, pretty much. It's only once in a while that theygive up anything by makin' 'em believe as there's a party lookin' for'em; and of course every tramp knows other tramps."
"Maybe so," replied Worth, thoughtfully, "but I do believe your Mr.Coster is not what exactly you call a 'bum.' Even if he doesn't knowanything about our car, there's some other matter on his mind and he isa lot more worried about it than he wants us to guess. What he has beentrying to do was to pump me, without saying anything that would give mehis reasons for doing it, and without telling me anything of anyconsequence. Why, he's an _awful liar!_"
Billy's show of wrath in his closing sentence made Chief Fobes laughboisterously. "Liar?" said he when he could catch his breath. "Did youexpect he'd be anything else? I tell ye both," and his eye took in bothBilly and Paul, "you might just as well forget this man. We'll have mostten days yet to make a charge of larceny against him for stealin' thebasket. If there's anything to be had out of him we'll get it. All's youcan do is have them East Side fellers (Hipp and Earnest) come aroundhere sometime and see if they can identify this Coster as the man theyseen on the South Fork."
"We might run out and see him right now," Paul suggested.
Billy agreed and the two were soon at Creek's garage. It was adelightful day for driving. The car's motion was cool and pleasantthough the sun beat down with unusual warmth even for June.
At the home of Alexander Hipp it was learned that he and Alfred Earnestwere picking cherries at a farm three miles beyond the Forks, on themain road. Without trouble Billy and Paul found them. The work with thecherries was nearly over for the day and the Auto Boys gave a hand thatit might be finished quickly. Glad of a chance for an automobile ride,Hipp and Earnest had readily agreed to visit the Griffin lockup.
Alfred had the seat beside Billy, who was driving. "My brother," saidhe, "thought you fellows made a mistake when two of you went away toAlbany to look for your machine. I told him about your plan, last night.He wished he had seen you to talk it over because he figures you oughtto have gone toward Buffalo."
"That so? Why?" Billy asked.
"Because he says it's fairly certain the people who had this Torpedojust switched to your car. They came from the east and was headed westto begin with. Naturally they wouldn't go back the way they had justcome from."
"We thought of that, but our car didn't go through Griffin," Billyanswered. "Willie Creek is sure of that. It must have turned back eastagain at the Forks."
Earnest argued to the contrary but, seeing there was nothing to begained by the discussion, Worth simply let him talk. It was strange howmany people had advanced theories regarding the car's disappearance.Indeed so much discussion and gossip had come to the ears of the boys,and so little real help had been given them, save by Mr. Creek, that itis little wonder mere talk was becoming annoying.
Coster, the only occupant of the village prison, was not a littlesurprised when he once more answered Chief Fobes' "Here, you! Step up!"upon seeing four boys confronting him. He leaned with hands upon thesteel bars as he had done the day before.
"Good, honest automobile grease on your hands, mister," remarked BillyWorth, noticing the fellow's fingers and especially his black nails.
Coster quickly put his hands down but volunteered no remark. Then, as ifhe feared being suspected of a desire to conceal something, he seizedthe bars again as before.
"He's the man we saw," said Alex Hipp, when with Chief Fobes they allhad reached the refreshing outer air. "At least I think so."
"Thinkin' don't go much from the standpoint of the law," the officeranswered. Neither Hipp nor Alfred Earnest could state positively thatCoster was the person they had seen on the lonely road that rainyafternoon. Billy and Paul drove them to their respective homes in theTorpedo.
"So we are knocked out of all we thought we had found yesterday,"observed Jones, droopingly, on the homeward way.
"Maybe not," Worth returned, deep in thought. "Do you see how the clutchpedal of the car has pressed against the side of the sole on my shoetill the leather is curved in half an inch or more?"
Paul said he did. Looking at Worth's shoes, then his own, he added:"That's nothing new. Mine is the same way."
"I know it is," said Billy. "And the sole of Coster's left boot ismarked in the same way, too."
Paul saw at once the significance of this fact, the evidence that ChiefFobes' prisoner was an automobile man. "Billy," he said earnestly, "weare gettin' some warm!"
Try as they would to "get busy," Worth and Jones found themselvesaccomplishing nothing as the afternoon wore away. Mr. Fobes was becomingquite impatient over their inquiries and they thought best not to visithim. Willie Creek was busy with some urgent repair work. There appearedno course to pursue--nothing to do--but wait. Impatient for word fromPhil or Dave, restless in their inactivity, the two boys sat for a longtime at the large open window of the hotel. A stranger entered.
As the young man--he seemed to be twenty-one or two, perhaps--sat downnear the boys, he remarked that he was waiting while his car wasundergoing some repairs at the garage. A conversation concerningautomobiles was the most natural result imaginable. Put two or moremotor enthusiasts together and invariably they will soon be talking.
The newcomer was from Texas, he said, touring through to New York. Hisbrother was with him but had remained at the garage. The substance ofthe Auto Boys' story was told the stranger as the conversationprogressed.
"Look here," said the young man in his flippant, breezy fashion, "youfellows are too easy by half. You've let that garage keeper and hisfriend, the town policeman, pull you all around. The garage man--Creek,you call him--sends you on a wild goose chase here and there. Thevillage cop steers you off with no help worth speaking of. Seems mightysuspicious, don't it? I just might mention that there was a garage in atown near us that made a business of changing over stolen cars. Wouldswitch 'em all around, in an old barn behind their shop, change wheelsizes, change engines, fix 'em up so no man could tell his own car if hesaw it. Then they slipped 'em off to the big cities and sold 'em. Now,right there, you've got a real tip, you take it from me!"
It is the meanest kind of wickedness to direct suspicion against anyperson without good cause. Also it is criminal. Paul Jones and BillyWorth realized this. Yet was it not true, as the stranger said, thatWillie Creek and Chief Fobes were great friends? And had not Mr. Creekmore than once suggested that it would be much cheaper for the boys totake a train home and conduct their search from there, paying no hotelbills while awaiting developments?
"I've always thought Willie was our friend," muttered Worth when he andPaul were alone again, "and I shall think so; but one thing is sure,we've got to keep our eyes open."
Mr. P. Jones, Esqu
ire, as Paul sometimes referred to himself, was of thesame opinion. Also he added: "It looked mighty funny to me the way oldFobes paid so little attention when Scottie was shot. Willie Creekdidn't seem to mind it, either, so much as I'd think he would."
Oh, it is a sad, bad business to sow seeds of suspicion! It is but alltoo likely they will grow! Always there is something which seems toconfirm the suspicious thought. And yet, on the other hand, it must beadmitted that dishonesty and falsehood are not infrequently concealed byan appearance of friendliness on part of those who practice them.
And now, whether Willie Creek was a true friend or a false friend, wesoon shall see for another night has passed and another day has come--aday to test the endurance and the courage of the Auto Boys almost to thebreaking point. And even while Phil and Dave were making themselvesknown in the Automobile club of Syracuse, Billy and Paul were planning acareful inspection of Mr. Creek's garage and its surroundings, as theysat at breakfast.
