information, he must not allow it to take his
thoughts from the loss that meant so much more to himself and friends,
personally. So, thanking the young man, he and Dave left the garage.

"Why didn't you tell him about the Torpedo? She's the Harkville car as
sure as you're born!" spoke MacLester, immediately the two were beyond
hearing.

"It might have done no harm, and again--there's the trouble! I wanted to
talk it over with you. It seems small and mean, but still we didn't pay
out railroad fare and all that to help find the owner of that Torpedo.
We wired Kull and did our part. He may be in Griffin right now to claim
the property."

"More likely he doesn't care. He got insurance money, so why bother any
more about it? That would explain the whole thing--the whole reason why
our telegram was never answered," Dave reasoned.

"It looks that way," Phil replied. "And our chasing the Torpedo is
chasing right away from the car we want to find. Blame it all! We don't
seem to get anywhere. Here we go stumbling into things about the Torpedo
but no clues at all to the Six!" All of which, and the disgruntled tone,
were both unusual words and manner in young Mr. Way.

The day had long since closed. The boys found a comfortable hotel and
went to bed, leaving a call for half-past five as the train for
Pittsfield left Albany at six-thirty. The distance was not great and as
several important automobile routes branched out from the Massachusetts
town, it was considered a likely source of information.

Tired as they were, Phil and Dave must and did discuss at length the
day's developments before they fell asleep. A sense of duty that they
should report at once the apparent fact that they had found the stolen
Harkville car, weighed somewhat upon their minds.

"But what if we do? What happens?" they reasoned. "We are put out just
that much in hunting for the Six. We lose time being called as
witnesses, and a lot of botheration, just when we need every minute, and
nothing much is gained. A few days will make no difference with regard
to the Torpedo, long ago given up as beyond recovery."

And so resolving to stick to the more important business first, but to
report the finding of the stolen Harkville car just so soon as details
of identification and the law's red tape would not be so inconvenient,
they put the subject aside.

Thanks to Chief Fobes, in part, and also thanks to their own error, in
part, the boys were making a costl