“It’s worth trying, anyway. We can tell him the whole story about Jackley. That ought to convince him.”
Disappointed, the Hardy boys descended through the trapdoor, and then made their way down through the tower until at last they were in the long gloomy hallway again. Their clothes were covered with dust and their hands and faces were grimy. Slowly, they trudged back into the main part of the mansion again, and there they met Adelia Applegate, who popped out of a doorway as they were passing and cackled with delight.
“So these are the fine boys who were going to find the stolen stuff for us, eh!” she exclaimed, in her cracked voice. “So these are the boys who were so sure it was hidden in the old tower! Well, well! And they didn’t find anything after all!”
“I’m afraid we didn’t, Miss Applegate,” Frank answered, with a smile. “But if you and Mr. Applegate will let us tell our story I think we can convince you that we really thought the stuff was hidden there. Even yet I believe it is hidden somewhere in the mansion—probably in the new tower.”
“In the new tower!” she sniffed. “Absurd! I suppose you’ll want to go poking through there now.”
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“It would be too much trouble, indeed!” she shrilled. “I shan’t have any boys rummaging all through my house on a wild-goose chase like this. You’d better leave right away, and forget all this nonsense.”
Her voice had attracted the attention of Hurd Applegate, who came hobbling out of his study at that moment.
“Now what’s the matter?” he demanded. Then, seeing the boys, his face became creased in a triumphant smile.
“Ah, ha! So you didn’t find anything after all! Heh! Heh!” he began to chuckle, immensely pleased with himself. “I told you so.”
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 handcar he got into a smashup, 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 anyone 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
