"I lost those keys at
the auction, and I can prove it to you. Look, I advertised for
them in the weekly Gazette."
The red-haired lad pulled a crumpled paper from his pocket and
showed Tom an advertisement offering a reward of two dollars for a
bunch of keys on a ring, supposed to have been lost at the auction
on Mr. Hastings' grounds in Lanton. The finder was to return them
to Andy Foger.
"Does that look as if I lost the keys in your boathouse?" demanded
the bully sneeringly. "I wouldn't have advertised them that way
if I' been trying to keep my visit quiet. Besides, I can prove
that I was out of town several nights. I was over to an
entertainment in Mansburg one night and I didn't get home until
two o'clock in the morning, because my machine broke down. Ask
Ned Newton. He saw me at the entertainment."
Andy's manner was so earnest that Tom could not help believing
him. Then there was the evidence of the advertisement. Clearly
the squint-eyed youth had not been the mysterious visitor to the
boathouse and had not unlocked the forward compartment. But if it
was not he, who could it have been and how did the keys get there?
These were questions which racked Tom's brain.
"You can ask Ned Newton," repeated Andy. "He'll prove that I
couldn't have been near your place, if you don't believe me.
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