He was not a
skilful deceiver, and Tom, looking into his squint-eyes, which
were opened unusually wide, could not but help believing the
fellow.
"We haven't seen it since the day we had the collision," added
Andy, and his chums confirmed this statement.
"We went off on a little cruise," continued the red-haired bully,
"and broke down several times. We had bad luck. Just as we were
nearing home something went wrong with the engine again. I never
saw such a poor motor. But we never took your boat, Tom Swift,
and we can prove it."
Tom was in despair. He had been so sure that Andy was the thief,
that to believe otherwise was difficult. Yet he felt that he
must. He looked at the disabled motor of the RED STREAK and
viewed it with the interested and expert eye of a machinist, no
matter if the owner of it was his enemy. Then suddenly a
brilliant idea came into Tom's head.
CHAPTER XVI
STILL ON THE SEARCH
"You seem to have lots of trouble with your boat, Andy," said Tom
after a few moments of rather embarrassed silence.
"I do," admitted the owner of the RED STREAK. "I've had bad luck
ever since I got it, but usually I've been able to fix it by
looking in the book. This time I can't find out what the trouble
is, nor can any of the fellows.
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