"I am glad to see you, Frank," said Fred offering his hand. "You are very kind to come and see a bold, bad burglar."
"You don't look much like it," said Frank, laughing. "Still appearances are deceitful."
"I don't think I look wicked," said Fred meditatively, as he glanced at his reflection in a small mirror that hung over the washstand. "Yet it appears that I have broken into a gentleman's house in Elmira, and stolen a gold watch and chain and some government bonds."
"How could you do it?" asked Frank with much seriousness. "So young and yet so wicked!"
"That's the question that puzzles me," said Fred. "How could I do it when at the time the burglary was committed I was speeding over the Erie road at the rate of thirty miles an hour?"
"Can you prove this?" asked Frank eagerly.
"Certainly I could, if the conductor or brakeman of my car were here."
"Where are they?"
"Probably on their way back to New York."
"Do you live there?"