touring through to New York. His
brother was with him but had remained at the garage. The substance of
the Auto Boys' story was told the stranger as the conversation
progressed.

"Look here," said the young man in his flippant, breezy fashion, "you
fellows are too easy by half. You've let that garage keeper and his
friend, the town policeman, pull you all around. The garage man--Creek,
you call him--sends you on a wild goose chase here and there. The
village cop steers you off with no help worth speaking of. Seems mighty
suspicious, don't it? I just might mention that there was a garage in a
town near us that made a business of changing over stolen cars. Would
switch 'em all around, in an old barn behind their shop, change wheel
sizes, change engines, fix 'em up so no man could tell his own car if he
saw 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 any
person without good cause. Also it is criminal. Paul Jones and Billy
Worth realized this. Yet was it not true, as the stranger said, that
Willie Creek and Chief Fobes were great friends? And had not Mr. Creek
more than once suggested that it would be much cheaper for the boys to
take a train home and conduct their search from there, paying no hotel
bills while awaiting developments?

"I've always thought Willie was our friend," muttered Worth when he and
Paul were alone again, "and I shall think so; but one thing is sure,
we've got to keep our eyes open."

Mr. P. Jones, Esquire, as Paul sometimes referred to himself, was of the
same opinion. Also he added: "It looked mighty funny to me the way old
Fobes paid so little attention when Scottie was shot. Willie Creek
didn'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 all
too likely they will grow! Always there is something which seems to
confirm the suspicious thought. And yet, on the other hand, it must be
admitted that dishonesty and falsehood are not infrequently concealed by
an appearance of friendliness on part of those who practice them.

And now, whether Willie Creek was a true friend or a false friend, we
soon shall see for another night has passed and another day has come--a
day to test the endurance and the courage of the Auto Boys almost to the
breaking point. And even while Phil and D