“Now I may as well warn you right now, that whatever you say will be used against you,” said the sheriff. “Now that I’ve done my duty in giving the warning, go ahead if you want to.”
“But you—you—why you surely don’t think I robbed the mill?” asked Ned, flushing with shame at the thought.
“Very good, but you can’t get anything out of me, young man,” said the sheriff with a wise nod. “I cut my eye teeth years ago. You’ll have to come with me, at least for a while. I reckon you can get bail.”
“Bail! Come with you! What do you mean?” asked Ned, while his two chums stood looking on, not knowing what to do.
“Look here,” began the fussy little sheriff. “You were at the mill on the night of the robbery, weren’t you?”
“I—er—that is I was—er—”
“Of course,” said the sheriff. “I knew you were. And you never said anything about it when we were hunting for clues, did you?”
“I told my two chums, Jerry and Bob, here,” said Ned.
“That’s right,” chimed in Jerry, and Bob nodded his head in assent.