“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.”