CHAPTER XVI
A Confession
"Riley!" ordered the chief, "see that package on the counter of the fruit stand. Go and get it and pour a pail of water over it."
"Huh?" exclaimed Riley, gaping.
"Pour a pail of water over it."
Riley took off his helmet and scratched his head. He began to wonder if his chief's brain had been affected by the heat.
"Don't stand there staring at me!" snapped Collig. "Hurry up and obey orders."
"This is the meanest job I ever got," observed Con Riley. But he ambled across the street, wondering why a crowd of people had collected—for word had quickly spread that a bomb had been found under Rocco's fruit stand—and when he reached the package he inspected it wonderingly.
"Mebbe she blowa him all to da bits!" suggested Rocco fearfully.
"He has insurance," consoled the chief.
"We'll give him a good funeral," observed Smuff.
Con Riley hunted around the fruit stand until he found a pail, and then he went up the street until he located a tap. Finally, with the pail full of water, he went back to the fruit stand, dumped the water over the package, and stood awaiting further orders.
"Soak it again!" roared the chief, who was taking no chances.
Con Riley sighed, but did as he was told. For five minutes he was kept busy dumping innumerable pails of water over the package, and only then did Chief Collig and Detective Smuff venture forth. Then, with fear and trembling, Chief Collig handed the package to Smuff and bade him open it.
Smuff's hands were shaking so that he could scarcely tear apart the coverings from the water-soaked parcel. The chief withdrew to a safe distance. Con Riley, who had just been told by a friend that he had been pouring water over a live bomb, was trying to achieve a sickly smile as the crowd congratulated him on his bravery.
Detective Smuff opened the package. The coverings fell away. The cardboard box, dripping with water, tumbled apart.
A bright object fell to the pavement with a clatter.
Everybody jumped.
But there was no cause for fear. The bright object was nothing more harmful than an old alarm clock.
The Hardy boys and their chums, mingling with the crowd, roared with laughter, and when the crowd saw how Chief Collig and his assistants had been duped they joined in the merriment.
"An alarm clock!" roared some one. "They thought an alarm clock was a bomb. Pouring water over an alarm clock!"
Chief Collig and Smuff returned to the police station with all the dignity they could muster under the circumstances. The crowd howled and whooped with laughter.
The Hardy boys went home smiling. The seven o'clock train had left half an hour before. Their father was making the trip to the city without the interferance of the chief and his assistant, Smuff.
Fenton Hardy returned home late that night, and at the breakfast table next morning he was in high spirits.
"Solved another mystery?" asked Mrs. Hardy gaily, as she poured the coffee. She seldom asked questions about her husband's work, being of a gentle nature that instinctively shrank from any discussion of crime. It frequently distressed her that Mr. Hardy's occupation should be one that meant terms of imprisonment for those whom his cunning and cleverness had brought to justice. But her husband's attitude this morning was so unmistakably jubilant that she was glad for his sake if he had scored another success.
"Practically solved, my dear. If you'd care to hear all about it—"
"Not me. You know I don't care to hear about these terrible things."
"Well, the boys shall hear of it then. They are interested. If they'll come into my den after breakfast I'll tell them all about it."
"That means you succeeded," Frank said.
"Eat your bacon and eggs and don't be impatient."
After breakfast the boys went with their father into the den off the library, eagerly awaiting news of his mission of the previous evening. They had not told him how Chief Collig and Detective Smuff had missed the train, but they were shrewdly certain that their efforts in this respect had been of considerable assistance to Mr. Hardy.
"First of all," said the detective, "Jackley is dead."
"Did he confess?"
"You're not very sympathetic for the poor fellow. Yes, he confessed. Fortunately, Chief Collig and Detective Smuff didn't show up—"
Fenton Hardy saw that Joe and Frank glanced at one another, and he smiled quietly.
"I have an idea that you two scamps know more about that than you would care to tell. However, they failed to show up, and I had a clear field ahead of me. I saw Jackley just before he died. And I questioned him about the Tower robbery."
"He admitted it?"
"He admitted everything. He said he came to Bayport with the intention of robbing the ticket office. When he failed in that attempt he decided to hang around for a few days, and then he hit upon Tower Mansion as his next effort. He entered the place and opened the safe. Then he took the jewels and the bonds."
"What did he do with the loot?"
"That's what I'm coming to. I had quite a time making Jackley confess to the Tower affair and it was not until he was on the point of death that he admitted it. Then he said, 'Yes, I took the stuff—but I couldn't get away with it. You can get it back easily. I hid it in the old tower—'
"That was all he said. He became unconscious then and died in a few minutes. Just why he couldn't get away with the loot and why he hid it in the tower, I don't know. He didn't have time to tell me. But he said it was hidden in the old tower."
"Why, we'll find it in no time!" exclaimed Frank. "Tower Mansion has two towers—the the old and the new. We'll search the old tower."
"The story seems likely enough," said Mr. Hardy. "Jackley would gain nothing by lying about it when he was on his deathbed. He probably became frightened after he committed the robbery and hid in the old tower until he saw the coast was clear and he was able to get away. Then no doubt he decided to hide the stuff there and take a chance on coming back for it some time after the affair had blown over."
"That was why he couldn't be traced through the jewels and the bonds," Joe said. "They were never disposed of at all. They've been lying in the old tower all this time."
"I tried to get him to tell me in just what part of the tower the loot was hidden," continued Fenton Hardy, "but he died before he could say any more. 'I hid it in the old tower'. He just managed to gasp that out before he became unconscious."
"It shouldn't be hard to find the stuff, now that we have a general idea of where it is," Frank pointed out. "Probably he didn't hide it very carefully. The old tower has been unoccupied for a long time and it is rarely entered. The stuff would be as safe there as if he had hidden it miles away."
Joe got up from his chair.
"I think we ought to get busy and go search the old tower right away. Oh, boy! If we can only hand old Applegate his jewels and bonds this morning and clear Mr. Robinson. Let's start."
"I'll leave it to you boys to make the search," said Mr. Hardy, with a smile. "I've no doubt the stuff will be easily recovered, and you can have the satisfaction of turning it over to Mr. Applegate. I guess you can get along without me in this case from now on."
"We wouldn't have got very far if it hadn't been for you."
"And I wouldn't have got very far if it hadn't been for you, so we're even," smiled Mr. Hardy. "Be on your way, then, and good luck to you."
"We'll find it, never fear," promised Frank, putting on his cap. "I hope the Applegates don't throw us out when we ask to be allowed to look around in the old tower."
"Just tell them you have a pretty good clue to where the bonds and jewels are hidden and they'll let you search to your heart's content," Mr. Hardy advised.
"Come on then, Joe. We'll have that thousand dollar reward before the morning is over."
Their father glanced at them shrewdly.
"Don't count your chickens before they are hatched," he said. And then, as the boys hastened out of the den, he called after them: "Also, you might remember the old proverb that there is many a slip between the cup and the lip."
But the Hardy boys scarcely heard him, so eager were they to begin searching the old tower and so confident were they that the mystery was about to be cleared up.