replied the farmer. "I prefer to believe this young man that
you seem to dislike so much."

"You're a nice one---you are!" uttered Bert, glaring in disgust
at the ally on whom he had counted.

"Perhaps you can calm down, Dodge, long enough to listen to reason,"
Dick suggested. "First of all, I am going to admit that we did
remove the front tires of your car and that we brought the tires
here and hung them on that line."

"Do you hear that?" demanded Dodge eagerly, turning once more
to the farmer. "They admit stealing my tires."

"I didn't quite notice that the young man went as far as to admit
theft," the farmer replied. "What I heard was that these young
men took your tires. As yet I haven't heard their reason for
removing the tires of your car."

"The reason for doing so was," Dick went on coolly, "that we had
some questions to ask of this fellow Dodge. We knew that if he
had to come here to look up his tires, we'd have a chance to ask
the questions. Dodge, you thought you were having fun with us
when you decorated the entrance to that covered bridge with your
notice about a rabid mastiff at large in that part of the country,
didn't you? You thought that a mad-dog scare would send us
helter-skelter home. If it gives you any satisfaction, I'll admit
that the notice did startle us for a brief time. But we soon got
at the truth of the matter, and learned that posting the notice was
your act."