Chapter III
Under Suspicion
For a moment after the detective's question there was dead silence. Jack Dodd stared at the fishing rod as though stupefied. Then, mechanically, he took it in his hands.
"Yes, it's mine, all right," he admitted. "I lost it."
"Oh, you lost it, did you?" said the detective unpleasantly. "That's very likely. You lost it in that car."
"I didn't! I've never seen the car. I left my fishing rod out by the front fence about a week ago and when I came to look for it the rod was gone."
The other detective snickered incredulously.
"It's true," protested Mr. Dodd. "Jack told me at the time that he had lost his rod."
"You'd back him up, of course. But that story won't go down. If he never saw the car before, how does his fishing rod happen to be in it?"
Jack and his father looked blankly at one an-
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