“I haven’t much to work on,” Bob said modestly, “but this is how I think you did it:
“Your brother flew here in the brown ship and hid it in the field, leaving the note to show you it was ready.”
“And then?——”
“You took off early, and then set down the big cabin ship on the turf—that accounts for the deep ruts—and the ship was in the way so you dragged it into the stubble until the brown ship got up, then took the cabin craft into the air——”
“I fail to see what the brown airplane, and Arthur’s brother, have to do with it,” Barney broke in.
“Mr. Tredway’s brother had to be there to bring down the cabin ‘plane,” Bob explained. “At least that’s the only way I can see for the tracks in the field, and the crack-up, to fit the conditions,” he paused.
“You mean—they exchanged ships? Arthur landed the cabin crate and then flew away in the brown one, while his brother crashed the Silver Flash?” Barney demanded. Tredway nodded as did his brother.
“The young man is correct in his deduction,” the latter said. “I had to come and exchange ships with my brother and then crack up the Silver Flash to give the idea that its pilot—and my brother had taken off in it!—had gone into a mudhole or under rocks in the lake.”
“What did you expect to gain by that?” asked Barney.
“Removing one partner,” Mr. Tredway smiled, “gave the other one ‘a free hand’ if he was in any way guilty, or you, Barney!”