slowly; "but we had a hired man here up until last week who wouldn't be above playing a trick like that on us."
"Who was he?"
"His name was Gus Montrose. He worked here for about two months, but we had to let him go. He was lazy and he drank a lot and last week he had a quarrel with my father; so he was dismissed. I wouldn't say he stole the car and left it here, but he's the only person I can think of who might have cause to do anything like that."
"He might have had something to do with the fishing rod, at any rate," said Chet.
"He was a surly, bad-tempered fellow, and when he left he swore that he'd get even with us. But of course that may have been only talk."
"Talk or no talk, it's something to work on," Frank Hardy remarked. "Have you seen him around since?"
Jack shook his head.
"Haven't seen or heard of him."
"It's rather suspicious, having a thing like this happen so soon after he left. He might have found the stolen car himself and concluded that it was a good chance to pay off his grudge. Or he may have found the car hidden here and deliberately put the fishing rod in the seat so it would appear that you knew something about
