Josie again smiled.
“You’ve now told me all you know about the automobile, and all you know about the queer fellow who acted as chauffeur and did other jobs around the place. You have practically ended your resources and want to put the case in my hands. I want to take it, for it’s one of those odd cases that appeal to an amateur detective. Why, even daddy has been mixed up in some of these ‘lost automobile’ cases, and has found to his embarrassment that some of them have baffled him to this day. Some of those mysteries of stolen cars proved so tame that dear old daddy fairly blushed to discover how cleverly, yet simply, they had fooled him.”
“But you say he recovered some of them?” asked Mary Louise.
“Why, yes; I must credit daddy with the fact that he has recovered most of the machines—and some of the thieves.”
“Is it so hard, then, to arrest the drivers?” inquired the Colonel, curiously.
“Yes, indeed,” was the answer. “For if an auto thief discovers he is being followed by one with a faster engine or more ‘gas’ in his tank, he can just hop out and take to the woods. In some unusual cases the driver is also caught but you can see how easy it is for him to dodge his pursuers.”
“Then if no one is chasing, he can get a long way in a couple of days?” questioned Mary Louise, anxiously.
“So he can,” assented the other girl, “but I’ve had the idea that the periods an auto thief may best be arrested are,—first, just after the theft; and secondly, after time enough has elapsed to create a sense of security in the mind of the thief and cause him to cease to worry.”
“Then you think our pirate has ceased to worry?” asked Colonel Hathaway, in a misbelieving tone.
“Yes, and he’s given us a chance to follow one or two clues to our advantage.”