other. Clearly, they were utterly astounded by this unexpected development, and at a loss to account for it.
"I think this pretty well clinches it," declared the trooper. "The rod couldn't have got there unless the boy was in the car—that's certain."
"But I wasn't in the car. I lost the rod a week ago."
"You'd say that, anyway," declared one of the detectives roughly. "Bring the car back to town, Jim." He turned to Mr. Dodd. "This isn't the end of the matter. There's not much doubt in my mind that you and your boy took that car. You certainly haven't been able to give us much of an explanation of how it came to be on your property, and the boy has told a pretty thin story to explain away that fishing rod."
"You're not going to arrest me!" exclaimed Mr. Dodd.
"No," said the detective reluctantly. "You don't have to come back with us. I guess you won't go very far away. But we're going to lay charges against you and your son."
"For what?"
"For stealing that car. What else do you think? And we're going to do a little more investigating about those other cars that were stolen, too."
