CHAPTER XVIII
The New Tower
"They have the audacity to want to go looking through the new tower now," said Miss Applegate, in high indignation.
Hurd Applegate's smile vanished.
"You can't do anything of the sort!" he snapped. "Are you boys trying to make a fool out of me? I knew mighty well you wouldn't find anything in the old tower."
"And we were pretty sure we would," answered Frank. "Listen, Mr. Applegate—we'll be fair with you. We'll tell you exactly why we wanted to make this search."
"Go ahead and tell me. Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because we wanted to work this out ourselves, as far as possible. But the information we had came from the man who stole the jewels and the bonds."
"What! Has he been caught?"
"He was captured—but he will never come to trial."
"Did he escape again?"
"He escaped—by death. The thief is dead."
"Dead? What happened?" asked Hurd Applegate excitedly.
"His name was Red Jackley, and he was a notorious criminal. He was tracked down by our father, and when he tried to escape on a railroad hand-car he got into a smash-up, and he was fatally injured. But before he died, he admitted robbing Tower Mansion.
"He admitted it? He confessed?"
"He confessed everything."
"I don't believe it," sniffed Adelia Applegate. "Nothing will ever convince me that it wasn't that rascal Robinson."
"Jackley confessed the whole business," Frank persisted. "And on his deathbed he said that he hadn't been able to get away with the loot. That he had hidden it."
"Where?"
"In the old tower."
"And it isn't there?"
"Joe and I have just searched the place high and low. The stuff isn't there. And from the fact that there are no footprints or marks of any kind in the dust, I don't think any one has been in the place for a long time."
"The old tower has been closed for years."
"So we thought," Joe interjected, "that he might have been mistaken and that he had really hidden the stuff in the new tower instead."
Hurd Applegate rubbed his chin meditatively. His manner toward the boys had undergone a change, and it was evident that he was impressed by their story.
"So this fellow confessed to the robbery, eh?"
"He admitted everything. He was a man who once worked around Bayport and he knew this locality pretty well. He had been hanging around the city for some days before the robbery."
"Well," said Applegate slowly, "if he says he hid the stuff in the old tower and it isn't there, he must have meant the new tower, just as you say."
"Will you let us search it?"
"I'll do more than that. I'll help you. I'm just as anxious to get the jewels and bonds back as anybody."
"All nonsense!" declared Adelia Applegate. "It's all a pack of falsehoods. I don't believe a word of it."
"Now, now, Adelia," said her brother soothingly, "these boys may be right after all. It won't hurt to take a look around, at any rate."
"And much you'll find, I'm sure! I declare, Hurd Applegate, you're just as bad as those boys are."
"Maybe, maybe," he answered. "But I'm going to help them search the new tower, anyway."
"Don't ask me to brush the dust off your clothes when you come back, then. For that's all you'll get. Dust. Nothing more. The jewels and bonds are no more in the new tower than they are back in the safe right now."
"All right, Adelia. Perhaps you're right. But it won't hurt to make a search, anyway. Come on, boys."
With that, Hurd Applegate led the way down the hall and opened the door leading to a corridor that extended toward the new tower. Frank and Joe, tingling with excitement, followed.
Although the new tower had been built just a few years back and although its rooms had been furnished, it had been seldom occupied, save on the rare occasions when the Applegates had visitors from the city. The new caretaker, employed to replace Robinson, was a lazy and slovenly fellow, who did not bother to extend his duties to the tower, knowing that the Applegates seldom went near that part of the mansion and realizing that any laxity in his duties in that respect would scarcely be discovered. It came as a surprise to Hurd Applegate, then, to find out that the new tower was dusty, that the windows had not been cleaned, that there were cobwebs on the ceilings.
In the first room they found nothing, although they rummaged about in all the corners, looked beneath the table, behind the chairs—looked everywhere, in fact. Not until they were quite satisfied that the loot had not been hidden there, did they ascend the stairs to the next room, and there again their search was fruitless.
Hurd Applegate, being a quick-tempered man, fell back into his old mood. The boys' story had convinced him, and he had been even more certain than they that the stolen bonds and jewels would indeed be found in the new tower. But when two of the tower rooms had been thoroughly searched without success, his disappointment increased.
"Don't believe there was anything in that yarn, after all," he muttered, as they went up the stairs to the third room.
"I don't see why he should lie about it, after he confessed," remarked Frank thoughtfully. "Dad told us that he admitted not being able to get away with the stuff."
"Then where did he hide it?" demanded Applegate. "If he wasn't lying, the stuff must be around here some place."
"Perhaps he hid it a little more carefully than we imagine," put in Joe.
"Haven't we hunted carefully enough?" Hurd Applegate snapped.
In the third room their search was again in vain. They even inspected the window ledges and tapped the floors and ceiling in the faint hope of finding some secret cupboard that was unknown to them.
But the loot was not found.
When at last they emerged through the trapdoor in the roof, out on top of the rear tower, and found it to be bare and empty, Applegate could not disguise his chagrin.
"Wild-goose chase!" he snorted. "Adelia was right. I've been made a fool of."
"You don't think we would make up a story like that, do you, Mr. Applegate?" Frank asked.
"I don't see any reason why you should. But there's something wrong somewhere. I've wasted half a morning poking around through this confounded tower—all for nothing."
"So have we."
"If that fellow did hide the stuff in one of the towers, some one else must have come along and got it. That's the only way I can figure it out. He had some one working with him. Or else Robinson found the stuff—That's more likely! Probably Robinson found the loot right after the robbery and kept it for himself."
"I don't think he would do that. He isn't that kind of man," Joe objected.
"With all that money in front of him? I wouldn't put it past him for a minute. Where did he get that nine hundred dollars, then? Explain that. He can't. He won't tell."
As they descended the stairs and went back into the main part of the mansion, Hurd Applegate elaborated on this theory. The fact that the loot had not been found in the face of Red Jackley's story, seemed to strengthen his conviction that Robinson had something to do with the affair.
"Either Robinson found the stuff and kept it, or else he was in league with Jackley!" said Applegate. "He's mixed up in it some way. I'm sure of that."
The boys could say nothing. They realized that the theory was probable, although in their hearts they found it hard to believe that their chum's father could have had anything to do with the theft. They were deeply puzzled and tremendously disappointed, for they had been practically certain that the loot would be found. Now they saw that the only consequence of the whole affair was to involve Mr. Robinson more deeply than ever in the mystery.
Back in the hallway they endured the taunts of Adelia Applegate, who cackled jubilantly when she saw that the searching party had returned empty-handed.
"There now!" she crowed. "Who's right now? Didn't I tell you it was all nonsense? Hurd Applegate, you've simply been made a fool of by these two boys."
"Now, Adelia, I think they meant well—"
"Meant well! Of course they meant well! And what did it gain you? They have prowled through the place all morning and all the good that's come of it is that perhaps you won't be so ready to believe the next cock-and-bull story some one tells you. Go back to your stamps, Hurd Applegate, and let it be a lesson to you. As for you boys, you should be ashamed of yourselves, disturbing folks like this!"
Whereupon she escorted the Hardy boys to the door, while Hurd Applegate, muttering sadly, went back to his study with a puzzled air.