should I pay any more attention to you? Tell me what you know about the
car you took that motor basket from and I'll do anything you ask that's
reasonable."

"Ye was just lyin' to me about that man Smith, now wasn't ye?" the man
returned in a low, earnest voice, ignoring Billy's request. And then he
added as the boy hesitated, and swearing as he had done the previous
day, "Aw, I was just a-kiddin' ye--just a-kiddin' ye to pass the time
away."

CHAPTER V

A BIT OF ADVICE FROM A STRANGER

"Is there no way you can _make_ that man talk?" Billy Worth asked Chief
Fobes. The boys and the officer were again in the latter's office.

"I suppose I can if you leave it to me, but I can't if you don't," Mr.
Fobes answered. "Look 'e here now. That fellow's in here for ten days.
Plenty of time yet to make him loosen up, but it ain't goin' to do no
good. What could he have had to do with swipin' your car? Nothin',
that's all. Might as well think he picked it up and shoved it in his
pocket! There's nothin' to it. He's a bum, that's all, an' is havin'
some fun tryin' to make us believe he does know something about your
automobile."

The two boys looked downcast. "Says his name is Coster," the officer
went on. "Belongs nowhere in particular. So much he told me when he
first was in here. Yer basket he picked up in the road, he now says, an'
he don't deny eatin' yer lunch an' sleepin' in the preacher's barn. An'
that's all he does know about your automobile. What's more, it stands to
reason, too. From any standpoint of the law ye can pick or choose, if he
took your auto, what could he have did with it?"

"Why has he been so interested, part of the time, anyway, in finding out
if there's a man named Smith, or anybody, looking for him?" Billy asked.

"They all act that way, pretty much. It's only once in a while that they
give up anything by makin' 'em believe as there's a party lookin' for
'em; and of course every tramp knows other tramps."

"Maybe so," replied Worth, thoughtfully, "but I do believe your Mr.
Coster is not what exactly you call a 'bum.' Even if he doesn't know
anything about our car, there's some other matter on his mind and he is
a lot more worried about it than he wants us to guess. What he has been
trying to do was to pump me, without saying anything that would give me
his reasons for doing it, and without telling me anything of any
consequence. Why, he's an _awful liar!_"

Billy's show of wrath in his