A BIT OF ADVICE FROM A STRANGER
“Is there no way you can make that man talk?” Billy Worth asked Chief Fobes. 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 no good. 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 his pocket! 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 your automobile.”
The two boys looked downcast. “Says his name is Coster,” the officer went on. “Belongs nowhere in particular. So much he told me when he first 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 to reason, too. From any standpoint of the law ye can pick or choose, if he took your auto, what could he have did with it?”
“Why has he been so interested, part of the time, anyway, in finding out if 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 they give 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 know anything about our car, there’s some other matter on his mind and he is a lot more worried about it than he wants us to guess. What he has been trying to do was to pump me, without saying anything that would give me his reasons for doing it, and without telling me anything of any consequence. Why, he’s an awful liar!”
Billy’s show of wrath in his closing sentence made Chief Fobes laugh boisterously. “Liar?” said he when he could catch his breath. “Did you expect he’d be anything else? I tell ye both,” and his eye took in both Billy and Paul, “you might just as well forget this man. We’ll have most ten days yet to make a charge of larceny against him for stealin’ the basket. If there’s anything to be had out of him we’ll get it. All’s you can do is have them East Side fellers (Hipp and Earnest) come around here sometime and see if they can identify this Coster as the man they seen 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 a delightful day for driving. The car’s motion was cool and pleasant though the sun beat down with unusual warmth even for June.