“Yes, do,” urged Barney. “I admit I’m stumped.”
“Well, sir,” Bob, without trying to be vain, spoke frankly. “We got mixed up and puzzled, at first, because we were trying to solve a lot of things by connecting them with your—disappearance.”
“And we made the mistake of suspecting everybody,” interrupted Al.
“That mixed Griff’s case in, and his father’s,” agreed Curt, and he turned back to give Bob the center of the stage.
“You didn’t know whether the damage to airplanes was aimed at the plant or at you direct,” Bob told Mr. Tredway, who nodded. “You had two airplanes—both alike, except one was the Golden Dart and the other was the Silver Flash.”
“Exactly. And I thought,” Mr. Tredway interrupted, “if the guilty person knew which airplane I meant to deliver, he would damage that one and so, at the last minute I changed my ship, after saying I was going to deliver the Golden Dart I took off in the Silver Flash——”
“And you were right,” gasped Al. “When we flew the Golden one her rudder cable was frayed and broke.”
“Right, my young friend. And nothing was wrong with the other.”
“Then how did you crash it—why did it crack up?”
Mr. Tredway looked to Bob for an explanation, desiring to test the youth’s skill at deduction.