“But how about the confession?” Mr. Hardy asked.
“The chief says that’s all a blind. Jackley did it to protect Robinson. They were both working together.”
“I know it looks bad for Robinson, but I don’t think it would hurt to give the towers another thorough search. I was the one who heard Jackley make the confession and I don’t believe he was lying. I believe he was trying to tell me all he knew.”
“Maybe. Maybe. I think he was too smart for you, Mr. Hardy, and everybody else thinks so too. It was all a hoax.”
“I’ll believe that after I’ve searched the towers inside and out.”
“Well, go ahead. Go as far as you like. But I don’t think you’ll find that treasure.”
With that, Mr. Hardy was content. He made preparations for a search of the towers, although Adelia Applegate flatly declared that the detective was making a laughingstock of her and her brother and that if the nonsense continued she would leave Tower Mansion forever and carry out her oft-expressed intention of going to one of the South Sea Islands as a missionary.
In spite of the protestations of the worthy lady, however, the search was carried out. The old tower was visited first, and for the greater part of the following morning the place was searched from top to bottom. Even the floors were torn up in places in the quest for some secret hiding place in which Jackley might have left the loot.
But although Fenton Hardy, accompanied by the boys and Hurd Applegate, who soon became infected with the dogged enthusiasm of the others and lent every assistance in his power, hunted throughout the old tower in every conceivable place, the missing jewels and bonds were not recovered.
“Nothing left but to search the new tower,” Mr. Hardy commented briefly, when the search was over, and throughout the whole afternoon the new tower was the scene of a search that was as thorough as it was fruitless.
Walls and partitions were tapped, floors were sounded, furniture was minutely examined—not an inch of space escaped the minute scrutiny of the detective and his helpers. But as the search wore on and the loot still evaded discovery, the chagrin of Fenton Hardy deepened and Hurd Applegate finally lost his temper.
“A hoax!” he declared. “A hoax from start to finish.”
“The man was in earnest!” the detective insisted.
“Then where is the stuff?”
“Someone else may have found it. That’s the only explanation I can think of.”
“Who else could have taken it but Robinson?”
To this, Mr. Hardy was silent. In spite of his knowledge of and liking for the man, he was beginning to suspect that the caretaker may have had a hand in the affair after all.
“Either that or Jackley simply told that yarn to shield Robinson,” declared Applegate.
“I’m not going to give up this search yet,” said Mr. Hardy patiently. “Perhaps the loot was hidden somewhere about the grounds.”
So the grounds of Tower Mansion, particularly in the vicinity of the two towers, were thoroughly searched. The shrubbery was inspected but to no avail.
The search continued until sundown, and by that time Adelia Applegate was pale with wrath, for the place, as she expressed it, had been “turned upside down,” Hurd Applegate was outspoken in his rage and disappointment, while Fenton Hardy was deeply chagrined. As for the boys, although they had expected that the additional search would be without success, they shared their father’s bewilderment.
“I can’t understand it,” admitted the detective. “I could have sworn that Jackley was in earnest when he made that confession. He knew he was near death and that he had nothing to gain by concealment. I can’t understand it at all.”
And there the mystery remained, deeper than it had ever been.
XX
The Flash in the Tower
For two days after the unsuccessful search of Tower Mansion, there were no further developments in the affair of the robbery. But on the third day, Chief Collig took a hand.
The first intimation the Hardy boys had of it was when they met Callie Shaw and Iola Morton on their way to school. Iola, a plump, dark girl, was a sister of Chet Morton and had achieved the honor of being about the only girl Joe Hardy had ever conceded to be anything but an unmitigated nuisance.
Joe, who was shy in the presence of girls, professed a lofty scorn for all members of the other sex, particularly those of high school age, but had once grudgingly admitted that Iola Morton was “all right, for a girl.” This, from him, was high praise.
“Have you heard what’s happened?” asked Callie, as they met the boys near the school entrance.
“School called off for today?” asked Joe eagerly.
“No, no. Nothing like that. It’s about the Robinsons.”
“What’s happened now?”
“Mr. Robinson has been arrested again.”
The Hardy boys stared at her as though thunderstruck.
“What for?” demanded Frank, in astonishment.
“Over that robbery at Tower Mansion. He has been working in the city lately and Chief Collig sent Detective Smuff for him last night. Iola and I were over to see the Robinson girls last night and they told us about it. Smuff should be back by now.”
“Well, can you beat that!” exclaimed Frank. “I wonder what’s the big idea of arresting him again?”
“It seems the chief has an idea that Mr. Robinson was in league with this man Jackley, the man your father got the confession from. He told Mrs. Robinson last night that he was sure Mr. Robinson had the stuff hidden somewhere and that he was going to find out. He was perfectly mean and nasty about it, and Mrs. Robinson doesn’t know what to do.”
The Hardy boys looked at one another. The affair had suddenly assumed more serious proportions.
“If Mr. Robinson is brought back, he’ll lose his job, and he had a hard time getting it, anyway,” said Iola.
“The worst of it is,” said Frank slowly, “that the case looks pretty bad against
