“Why, it was a roadster this fellow drove up to my office in!” cried Ike Harrity. “A yellow roadster.”

“Ha!” said Detective Smuff. “A clue!” He immediately fished a notebook out of his pocket and began rummaging around for a pencil.

“Never mind, Detective Smuff,” observed the chief heavily. “I’ll take any notes that are needed.”

Detective Smuff, duly squelched, put back his notebook in confusion.

“What fellow?” Frank asked. “Who drove up to your office in a yellow roadster?”

“The holdup man,” declared Harrity. “I was held up this morning. A fellow tried to steal the steamboat money on me.”

“Now just a minute. Just a minute!” demanded the chief. “Let me say a word here. The situation is this. A man drove up to the steamboat office a little while ago and tried to hold up Mr. Harrity. But a passenger happened to come into the office just then and the fellow got frightened and ran away. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” said Harrity.

“I’ll make a note of it,” said the chief, suiting the action to the word. When he had scribbled industriously for some time he raised the pen again and pointed it at Chet.

“Now you ,” he observed, “say that somebody stole a yellow roadster on you this morning.”

“Yes, sir! From our farm. He was seen driving into Bayport just a little while ago.”

The chief made a note of it.

“And you ,” he said, pointing the pen at Ike Harrity, “say the holdup man drove up to the office in a yellow roadster?”

“That’s right, chief. That’s right. A yellow roadster, it was. And now that I come to think of it, I’ve seen Chet Morton’s car before and it was the spittin’ image of it.”

“Then,” declared the chief, putting down his pen with the air of one making a momentous discovery, “it looks to me very much as if the holdup man and the fellow that stole the car is one and the same man.”

Detective Smuff wagged his head solemnly in admiration of this feat of deduction. “I believe you’re right, chief,” he declared.

“Of course he’s right,” said Frank. “It couldn’t be anyone else. The point is this⁠—where did the holdup man go? Did he leave in the car? Did anyone follow him?”

“He left in the car all right,” said Harrity. “But nobody followed him. I telephoned for the police.”

“Did you notice the color of this man’s hair?” asked Frank suddenly.

“What’s that got to do with it?” asked Detective Smuff.

“Never mind. It may have a great deal to do with it. Did you notice the color of his hair?” repeated Frank, turning to Harrity.

“It was short,” said Harrity firmly. “Short and dark.”

Frank and Joe looked blankly at one another.