“No. I came out alone. Lester wanted to come along, but I told him to stay at the ranch and do some work. He seems to think that all he’s out here for is to play.”
“Oh, then Lester is staying with you, is he?” queried Fred.
“Yes. His folks let him come up for a couple of months. Then he’s going back to his home in Wyoming, and after that he’s got to return to that military school. I think it’s a fool notion to send him to that school. If I was his father I’d make him stay out here and go to work.”
“You don’t suppose Lester tried to start the car, do you?” questioned Andy.
“How could he if he was at the ranch? But wait a minute! He said something about going fishing in that brook that flows through the woods. Maybe he did come up that way, after all.”
“Does he know how to run the auto?” asked Randy.
“Yes, he does. But I don’t let him run it very often because he’s so careless I’m afraid he’ll ruin the machine—he bangs her over the rocks something awful. I ain’t got no money to waste on a new car. This has got to do, even if it is kind of used up.”
“Maybe Brassy—I mean Lester—came up and tried to start the car while the gears were in mesh,” suggested Jack; “and then when the car started to run away perhaps he got scared and ran away, too.”
“If he did anything like that he’ll have an account to settle with me!” exclaimed Jarley Bangs, his eyes glowing with anger. “That boy is getting too fresh. I said he could come up here, thinking he’d do some work around the place and so earn the money that I promised him for his schooling. But evidently he thinks more of having a good time than he does of working. He is forever fooling around the car and wanting to run it; so I wouldn’t put it past him to do what you suspect. As soon as I git home I’ll ketch him and make him tell me the truth,” continued Jarley Bangs, with a determined shake of his head.
After that he questioned Spouter concerning the ranch Mr. Powell had purchased and spoke of the men who had previously owned the place.