“Perhaps,” suggested Grant, “after we’ve been here a while we might be able to put you wise to the good fishing places. Our friend, Piper, although he hasn’t yet tried his hand at it, is a right wonderful angler.”
“When the fish hear that he’s araound,” grinned Crane, “they crawl right aout on dry land and hide themselves.”
“Funny, hey?” snapped Sleuth. “Good joke! Ha! ha!”
Somehow, this seemed to amuse Mr. Granger greatly, for he continued to laugh as he made his way toward his canoe. Piper glared at the young man’s back and muttered; unlike the others, he did not go down to the shore to see the visitor off.
“Queer chap, that chum of yours, boys,” said Granger, ere getting into the canoe. “Anything wrong with him in his garret?”
“Nothing except the sus-stuff he reads,” answered Springer. “Some folks might think Sleuthy a bit queer, but he’s no fool, as he’s demonstrated more than once.”
“I should say not,” agreed Stone. “I surely have reasons to feel mighty grateful toward Piper. Naturally, people laugh at him on account of his poses in imitation of the great detectives of fiction; but less than a year ago, when I was arrested on a false charge, he turned the laugh and materially aided in clearing me through some genuine detective work that was really clever.”
“I can hardly believe such a thing possible,” murmured Granger.
“It’s a fact,” asserted Ben.
“And I’ll swear to it,” supported Phil, “for I was in the courtroom when he told his sus-story that upset the case against you and astonished everybody who heard it. Sleuth may be queer, but it’s a fact that he’s no fuf-fool.”