"You were out that evening with the car. I remember it very well," his
mother declared.

"What of it? I wasn't on Market Street the whole evening," grumbled the
boy.

"Where were you then?" she demanded.

It seemed as though everybody else asked Purt Sweet that question, from the
Chief of Police down; and it was the one question the boy would not answer.

He grew red, and sputtered, and begged the question, every time anybody
sought to discover just where he was with the automobile on that Saturday
evening after dinner. Even when Chief Donovan threatened him with arrest,
Purt said:

"If I should tell you it wouldn't do any good. It would not relieve me of
suspicion and would maybe only make trouble for other people. I was out
with our car, and that is all there is to it. But I did not run that man
down. I was not on Market Street."

He stuck to this. And his honest manner impressed the head of the police
force. Besides, Mrs. Sweet was very wealthy, and if Purt was arrested she
would immediately bail him and would engage the best counsel in the county
to defend her son. It is one thing to accuse a person of a fault. As Chief
Donovan very well knew, it is an entirely different matter to prove such
accusation.

The news of Purt's trouble was not long in getting to Short and Long in the
hospital. Chet and Lance really thought the smaller boy would express some