“You don’t think they’ll send him to the penitentiary?”
“It looks bad. The thief said he hid the stuff in the old tower. When we looked for it, the stuff wasn’t there. About the only person that could have found it and taken it away, was Mr. Robinson himself.”
“He wouldn’t do it!” declared Iola indignantly.
“We’re sure he wouldn’t. But a jury mightn’t be so easy to convince.”
It was time to go into school at that moment and they went to their classrooms, Frank and Joe deeply worried by what they had just heard. At recess that morning they met Jerry, Phil, Tony and Chet Morton, and told them the news. All the boys were highly concerned over this sudden turn in events.
“This will be tough on Perry,” said Phil.
“It’ll be tough on the whole family,” Chet declared. “They’ve had enough trouble over this dirty affair as it is.”
The boys discussed the situation from all angles and racked their brains for some way whereby they could help the Robinsons, but they were reluctantly forced to admit that only by actual discovery of the hidden loot could Mr. Robinson be cleared of suspicion in connection with the robbery.
“Even if he were tried and acquitted, it would be a stain on his reputation for the rest of his life, as long as the treasure isn’t recovered,” Frank summed up.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” Joe said. “We’ve done all we could, and it hasn’t been enough.”
“And Dad has done the same. I’m sorry, on his account. He was so sure he had cleared the whole thing up when he got the confession from Jackley. But there was something lacking.”
“Well, we all helped too,” remarked Jerry. “We kept Collig and Smuff from catching that train. Jackley wouldn’t have talked at all if they had seen him.”
So, reluctantly enough, the boys were forced to admit that they were facing a stone wall. This also was the conclusion of Fenton Hardy, when they talked to him at lunch that day.
“There’s nothing to be done,” said the detective. “Robinson has been arrested, and while he might be cleared by a skilful lawyer, he hasn’t any money to spend on his defence. Whether he is cleared or not, his reputation is ruined.”
“Unless the loot is found,” put in Joe.
“Yes, unless the loot is found. That is his only hope. But I don’t think there’s much chance of that.”
And there the mystery of Tower Mansion rested for the time being. The arrest of Mr. Robinson furnished a sensation for a day or so and then the case receded into the background, the newspapers finding other things to become excited about. But for the Robinsons it was, naturally enough, a matter of supreme moment. Perry Robinson paid a call at the Hardy home, pleading with the great detective to continue his efforts to clear the accused man.
Mr. Hardy was sympathetic, but, as he said, he was facing a stone wall.
“I’ve done all I can, my boy,” he explained to the grief-stricken lad. “If there was anything more I could do, I would do it. But there are no more clues. If Red Jackley’s confession couldn’t clear up the affair, then nothing else could. I’m afraid—”
He left the sentence unfinished.
“Do you mean my father will go to jail?”
“I wouldn’t say that. But you must be prepared to face the worst.”
“He didn’t do it,” said Perry doggedly.
“I know you have confidence in him. But the law looks only at the facts. Many an innocent man has been convicted on less evidence.”
“It will kill my mother.”
Mr. Hardy was silent.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Perry. “I’d do anything to save him. But there’s nothing—”
“There is nothing any of us can do now unless by some lucky chance the loot is recovered. That would clear everything up, of course. But in the meantime we just have to wait and hope.”
“And you can’t do anything more, Mr. Hardy?”
“A detective is not a miracle man, my boy,” said Fenton Hardy kindly. “He is only a man who is trained in tracing criminals. He has to go by the facts at his disposal. I have exhausted every line of action in this case. Everything that could be done, has been done.”
Perry Robinson got up, twisting his cap nervously in his hands.
“We all thank you very much too, Mr. Hardy,” he said huskily. “Don’t think I’ve been ungrateful by coming here and asking you to do more. I guess I didn’t realize just how hopeless it is.”
“It isn’t hopeless, exactly. Don’t think that. There’s always hope, you know. But—be prepared for the worst.”
“I’ll have to be.”
With that, the boy left. Frank and Joe met him in the hallway and awkwardly tried to express their sympathy. Perry was grateful.
“I know both of you have done a lot for us in this mess,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for you we wouldn’t even have Jackley’s story to go on.”
“We’re only sorry it didn’t work out as we hoped, Perry,” Frank said. “We thought that would clear the whole thing up. Instead, it seems to have involved your father deeper than ever.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Perhaps something will turn up yet. Joe and I aren’t going to lie down on the job now. There isn’t much we can do, but we’ll have our eyes open for more clues—if there are any.”
Perry Robinson shrugged his shoulders disspiritedly. “I guess there isn’t much use now,” he said. “But I appreciate it of you.”
When he went away, the Hardy boys watched him going down the front walk. His carefree stride was gone, and instead he walked mechanically, as though in a daze.
“What a fine pair of detectives we are!” exclaimed Frank, in sudden disgust. “If we had been any good at all we could have got those clues soon enough for Dad to have caught Jackley in time.”
“No use worrying about that now,” replied his brother. “It was just the way things happened.”
“Well, there’s one thing left. We must find
