“He’s looking at us, Tom,” whispered Sam.
“Well, let him look if he wants to. It doesn’t cost anything,” was the reply. And then Tom turned his head squarely, and stared at the former seminary gardener. Immediately, the man dropped his eyes, and went on with his meal. He soon finished, and, paying his bill, left the dining car in a hurry.
“That’s a queer way to do,” was Sam’s comment. “He acted as if he didn’t want us to see him.”
“Maybe he is ashamed of himself for having lost his position,” returned the brother. “Anyway, it’s none of our business.” And there the talk came to an end.
CHAPTER XVII
WHAT DICK HAD TO TELL
“Here we are, Sam!”
“And I’m glad of it, Tom. I don’t care much about riding in the cars after it is too dark to look out of the windows,” returned the youngest Rover.
The train was nearing the Grand Central Terminal, in New York City. The passengers were gathering their belongings, and the porter was moving from one to another, brushing them and gathering in his tips. Then the train rushed into the long station, and soon came to a halt.
“I wonder if Dick will be on hand to meet us?” said Sam, as he and his brother left the car and made their way towards the waiting-room.
“Maybe, although it’s pretty late.”
There was a large crowd coming and going, and, for the moment, the lads had all they could do to get through. Then, as they emerged into the middle of the big waiting-room, they saw two familiar figures close at hand.
“Hello, Dick! How do you do, Dora!”
“So here you are, Tom and Sam!” cried their big brother, and shook hands heartily. Then Dora came up to greet the newcomers.
“Did you have a nice trip?” asked Dick’s wife, as she smiled at them.
“Oh, yes, it was all right,” answered Sam. “And what do you think? We got in a moving picture!”
“You did!” exclaimed Dora. “That certainly is a new experience.”
“We received your telegram, Dick,” said Tom, and looked at his big brother, anxiously. “I hope nothing very serious has happened.”
“Well, Tom, I—I—” Twice Dick tried to go on and failed. He looked at both of his brothers, and his face showed something that they had never seen in it before.
“Oh, Dick! Don’t say anything here!” interposed Dora, hastily. “Wait till we get to the hotel.” She turned to Sam and Tom. “Don’t ask him any questions now. It won’t do to have a scene here.”
“All right, Dora, just as you say,” answered Tom, quickly. Yet, both he and Sam wondered greatly what had occurred to so upset Dick.
The oldest Rover boy had a taxicab handy, and into this the whole party got and were quickly driven across Forty-second Street to Fifth Avenue, and then, for a number of blocks, down that well-known thoroughfare. Soon they turned towards Broadway, and a moment later came to a stop before the main entrance of the Outlook Hotel.
“As you know, we have a suite of rooms here,” said Dick to his brothers. “I have hired an extra room next door, so we can all be together.”
A bellboy had already secured the newcomers’ baggage, and, after signing the register, Sam and Tom followed Dick and his wife to the elevator and to the third floor.
“It’s a fine layout, all right,” declared Sam, when they were settled and the bellboy had been dismissed.
Dick did not make any answer to this remark. He walked over to the door, to see that it was closed, then he suddenly wheeled to confront his brothers.
“You’ve got to know it sooner or later, so you might as well know it now,” he said in as steady a voice as he could command. “Do you remember that I wrote to you about sixty-four thousand dollars’ worth of bonds that I had bought for dad in place of some securities that he possessed?”
“Yes,” answered both brothers.
“Well, those bonds have been stolen.”
“Stolen!” gasped Sam.
“You don’t mean it, Dick!” came from Tom.
“I do mean it. The bonds have been stolen, and, try my best, I can’t get a single clew as to where they went or who took them.”
“Sixty-four thousand dollars! Phew!” ejaculated Sam. “That’s some loss!”
“But please don’t blame Dick,” broke in Dora. “I am sure it isn’t his fault.”
“How did it happen?” questioned Tom.
“They were taken out of the safe at the offices.”
“Stolen from the safe, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“When was this?”
“Day before yesterday.”
“Of course the safe was locked?” put in Sam.
“Certainly.”
“But Pelter and Japson knew that combination, didn’t they, Dick?” questioned Tom, eagerly.
“No, Tom, they did not. When they turned the offices over to me, Pelter made some sarcastic remark, stating I had better have the combination changed. I told him I certainly would have it changed; and the very next day I had the safe makers up to inspect the lock, and change the combination.”
“Humph! Then that lets Pelter and Japson out, doesn’t it?”
“But somebody must have taken those bonds,” came from Sam. “Did anybody else have the combination, Dick?”
“Nobody but Dora. I gave her the figures, so she could get the safe open in case anything happened to me, or I was away.”
“I’ve got the figures on a card in my pocket-book,” explained Dora, “but I don’t believe anybody saw them. In fact, the card has nothing but the bare figures on it, so it isn’t likely that any one would understand what those figures meant. Oh, but isn’t it perfectly dreadful! I—I hope you—you boys won’t blame Dick,” she faltered.
“Of course we don’t blame Dick,” returned Tom, promptly.
“Why should we blame him?” added Sam. “If he put the bonds in the safe and locked them up, I can’t see how this robbery is his fault. It might have happened to any of us.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” returned Dick; and his face showed his relief. “Just the same, boys, we have got to find those bonds. Our family can’t afford to lose sixty-four thousand dollars—or rather sixty thousand dollars.”
“What do you mean, Dick?” asked Tom. “You said sixty-four thousand dollars.”
“So I did, but four thousand of the bonds were registered in dad’s name, principal and interest, so it’s likely the thief won’t be able to use them.”
“And all the other bonds were unregistered?” queried Sam.
“Yes, every one of them.”
“So they can be used by any one?”
“Exactly—although, of course, the thief would have to be very careful how he disposed of them.”
“Have you notified the police?” asked Tom.
“Not yet. I wanted to consult you first. Besides, I thought it might be possible that the thief would put an advertisement in the newspapers, offering to return the bonds for a reward. But so far, I haven’t seen any such advertisement.”
“It isn’t likely they’ll offer to return them if sixty thousand dollars’ worth are negotiable,” returned Tom. “But give us the particulars of the affair;” and the youth dropped into a seat, and the others did the same.
“Well, to start with, as I said before, as soon as Pelter and Japson and their hired help left, I had the lock of the safe investigated, and then had the combination changed,” began Dick. “The fellow from the safe company showed me how the combination was worked, so I fixed the new numbers to suit myself, in order that no outsider would know how to open the safe. I put the numbers down on two cards, and placed one of the cards in my notebook, and gave the other to Dora. As she said, the cards had nothing on them but the bare numbers, so that a person getting one of the cards would not
know that the numbers referred to the safe combination.
“It took me several days to get rid of the old stocks, and while I was doing that I, from time to time, purchased the bonds, buying them, on the advice of Mr. Powell, from several bond houses in Wall Street. I also bought a brand new japanned box with a little lock, and placed the bonds in that box, and then put the box in the safe. The last I saw of the bonds was about half-past four in the afternoon, when I placed the last of the bonds in the box. I came down to the office at a little before ten o’clock the next morning, and opened the safe about half an hour later. Then the box was gone.”
“Wait a minute, Dick,” interrupted Tom. “You just said you opened the safe. Wasn’t the door already open?”
“No, the door was shut and locked, just as I had left it the night before.”
“Humph! Then somebody must have worked the combination,” ventured Sam.
“So it would seem, Sam, and yet when I had the lock inspected, the safe company man told me that that was a first-class combination, and practically burglar proof.”
“Is it an old safe?”
“I don’t think so—in fact, the safe man led me to believe it was one of the newer kinds. It is about five feet square, and the walls are almost a foot thick. Oh, it is some safe, I can tell you that!”
“But it was not safe in this instance,” retorted Tom, who, no matter how serious the situation, was bound to have his little joke.
“You said Pelter and Japson had gone for good,” continued Sam. “Is there nobody else around attached to the old firm?”
“I took on their old office boy, a lad named Bob Marsh. You’ll remember him,” returned the oldest Rover. “He said he wanted work the worst way, so I thought I would give him a chance.”
“Maybe he got the combination, and gave it to Pelter or Japson.”
“I don’t think so, Sam. The boy is rather forward in his manner, but I think he is perfectly honest.”
“Yes, but somebody opened that safe and took the box of bonds,” put in Tom.
“I know that, Tom, and we’ve got to get those bonds back, or it will be a very serious piece of business for us,” answered the oldest Rover boy, soberly.
“Was anything else taken, Dick?” questioned Sam.
“Not a thing. And that’s queer, too, because I had a number of private papers in the safe, and also our new set of books.”
“Then that would go to show that all the thief was after were the bonds,” came from Tom. “You say they were in a new japanned box that was locked?”
“Yes, but the lock didn’t amount to much. I think it could easily be opened.”
“Sixty thousand dollars is a lot of money to lose,” mused Sam. “Dick, that will put us in something of a hole, won’t it?”
“It may. But don’t let us think about that, Sam. Let us try to get the bonds back,” returned his oldest brother, earnestly.
CHAPTER XVIII
AT THE OFFICES
After that the three Rovers and Dick’s wife talked the matter over for fully an hour. Dick gave Sam and Tom all the particulars he could think of, and answered innumerable questions. But try their best, not one of the party could venture a solution of the mystery.
“I think you had better go to bed,” said Dora, at last. “You can go down to the offices the first thing in the morning, and make up your minds what to do next;” and this advice was followed.
“No use of talking, this is a fierce loss!” was Tom’s comment, when he and Sam were retiring.
“Yes, and Dick feels pretty bad over it,” returned the youngest Rover. “I am afraid he imagines that we think he is to blame.”
“Maybe, but I don’t blame him, Sam. That might have happened to you or me just as well as to him.”
It must be admitted that the boys did not sleep very soundly that night. For a long time each lay awake, speculating over the mystery, and wondering what had become of the bonds.
“Perhaps Pelter and Japson had nothing at all to do with it,” thought Tom, as he reviewed the situation. “It may have been some outsider, who watched Dick alter the combination of the safe.”
All of the boys were up early in the morning, and accompanied by Dora, obtained breakfast in the hotel dining-room.
“If you want me to go along, I shall be glad to do so,” said Dora, during the course of the meal. It cut her to the heart to have Dick so troubled.
“No, Dora, you had better stay here, or else spend your time shopping,” answered Dick. “We’ll have to take care of this matter ourselves.”
“I’ll tell you what you can do,” broke in Tom. “You can write a nice letter to Aunt Martha, telling her that we have arrived safely, and that we are going into some business matters with Dick. Of course, you needn’t say a word about the robbery. It will be time enough to tell her and Uncle Randolph after we have tried all we can to get the bonds back—and failed.”
As my old readers will probably remember, the offices formerly occupied by Pelter, Japson & Company were located at the lower end of Wall Street. The building was an old one, five stories in height, which had recently been put in repair. The offices were on the fourth floor in the extreme rear, and had a fairly good outlook.
The Rovers found the office boy, Bob Marsh, already on hand, and doing some work which Dick had given him. He was a bright, sharp-eyed lad, his only failing being that he was a bit forward.
“Any one here to see me, Bob?” asked Dick, as they entered.
“Nobody, sir, but an agent that wanted to sell you some kind of a new calendar. I told him we had bushels of calendars already,” and the boy grinned slightly.
Passing through two small offices, the Rovers came to one in the rear—that which had formerly been used by Jesse Pelter.
“Looks a little bit familiar,” observed Tom. “Looks like when I visited it as Roy A. Putnam, from Denver, Colorado, and thought about taking stock in the Irrigation Company,” and he laughed shortly as he recalled that incident, the particulars of which have been related in “The Rover Boys in New York.”
“You’ve got pretty big offices for only you and the office boy,” remarked Sam.
“I took them just as the old concern had them,” returned Dick. “But if business increases, I guess we’ll have to have quite some office help. Anyway, a bookkeeper and a stenographer.”
“Hadn’t you better send that office boy out for a little while?” suggested Sam.
“A good idea,” returned his oldest brother, and sent the lad on an errand up to the post-office.
Left to themselves, the Rovers once more went over the details of the robbery so far as they knew them. Dick opened the safe, showing his brothers how the combination lock was worked; then the boys looked inside the strong-box, and into the private compartment which, so Dick told them, had contained the missing box of bonds.
“I don’t see how they got into this safe,” was Sam’s comment, after the door had been closed and the combination turned on. “I can’t make head or tail of how to get it open.”
“Let me have a try at it,” returned Tom, and he worked for several minutes over the combination.
“Here are the figures for the combination,” said Dick, and he turned them over to his brothers. But even with the figures before them, they found it no easy task to open the heavy door of the strong-box. This door was provided with several bolts, so that to get it open without either working the combination or else blowing the door open, was out of the question.
“It’s a Chinese puzzle to me. I give it up,” declared Tom, at last. “The only way I imagine, Dick, is that, somehow or other, somebody got hold of that combination.”
“It would seem so, Tom. But I can’t see how it could be done, or who did it,” was the answer.
“Do you suppose that boy suspects anything?” questioned Sam.
“He may, because, after I discovered that the box was gone, I questioned him pretty closely as to who had been in the offices. I guess he knows something is wrong.”
“Let us ask him about Pelter and Japson when he comes back,” said Tom. “It certainly won’t do any harm to get all the information possible. Then, if we can’t get any clew by noon, I think the best thing you can do, Dick, is to notify the authorities.”
It was not long before Bob Marsh came back from his errand to the post-office, and then Dick called him into the inner office.
“Now, Bob, I’m going to tell you something,” said the oldest Rover, coming to the point without delay. “There has been a robbery here.”
“Robbery!” exclaimed the boy. “I didn’t do it. I wouldn’t take nothin’,” he went on, quickly.
“I didn’t say you did, Bob. But what I want you to do is to tell me everything that you know. Was there anybody in this office during my absence?”
“Nobody went into this office while I was here,” declared the office boy. “I wouldn’t let ’em in. But then you must remember, the janitors come in during the night to clean up.”
“Oh, yes, I know that.”
“Dick, do you think the janitor of the building could be in this?” exclaimed Sam.
“As I have said several times, I don’t know what to think,” answered Dick. “As a matter of fact, I don’t know who the janitor is.”
“Say!” broke in the office boy, suddenly. “There was one feller here that I didn’t tell you about. I forgot about him. He was here three or four days ago—I don’t exactly remember what day it was.”
“Who was that?”
“Why, it was a young feller named Barton Pelter. He’s a relation to Mr. Pelter. I think Mr. Pelter is his uncle.”
“Barton Pelter!” exclaimed Dick. He looked at his brothers. “That must be the same fellow that you wrote about—the fellow you pulled out of the river.”
“What did this Barton Pelter want?” asked Sam.
“He wanted to see his uncle. He knew that the firm had sold out to you folks, but he was not certain if they had moved away yet. When I told him that his uncle was gone, he looked kind of disappointed.”
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 299