“Has he been arrested?” asked Joe.
Fenton Hardy shook his head.
“When the theft occurred, the authorities first thought of Ducroy, because they knew he had been discharged and was probably looking for a chance of revenge. So their first action was to investigate his movements on the day of the robbery.”
“And what did they find?”
“He wasn’t near Bayport at all. He was in Philadelphia—at least, he has such an alibi.”
“Can he prove it?” asked Frank.
“He had two witnesses to prove it. So nothing could be done against Ducroy.”
“I’d like to know who those witnesses were,” said Frank. “I don’t believe he was in Philadelphia at all.”
The boys were openly dubious about Ducroy’s alibi.
“He’s a slick one, Dad,” declared Joe. “He may look dumb, but he’s not as dumb as he looks.”
X
Looking for Clues
The news that Giles Ducroy had a proven alibi to clear himself of suspicion in the affair of the stolen mail sacks disconcerted the Hardy boys for a time.
When their father told them about the robbery their first thought was that Ducroy and his two companions were the guilty parties, for the theft seemed to be linked up in some manner with the conversation the lads had overheard in the cabin at Beach Grove. However, there now remained the fact that Ducroy had an alibi, and also the fact that the mail sacks were by no means worth the amount the former pilot had mentioned to his companions.
“Just the same,” declared Frank that afternoon, “I’m convinced that Ducroy had something to do with the affair, alibi or no alibi.”
“Perhaps the mail sacks weren’t stolen by Ducroy,” suggested Joe. “Perhaps he went to Philadelphia, so he would be able to prove an alibi, and left Newt Pipps and Ollie Jacobs to commit the actual robbery.”
“It could have been worked that way. I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Joe. Let’s take the roadster and drive back down to Beach Grove. I’d like to take another look at that cabin. Perhaps we’ll find a few clues there that may help us.”
Joe was impressed by this suggestion, and in a short time the Hardy boys were speeding down the Shore Road in their car. When they reached the grove they left the roadster and made their way through the woods down the path toward the little cabin.
“We didn’t have the opportunity to look through the place when we were here before,” Frank pointed out. “They may have left something behind, a few notes or plans for instance, that will give us a better idea of what they were talking about.”
“It’s a mighty suspicious thing that a robbery should occur at the airport so soon after Giles Ducroy and his friends were talking about some crooked scheme.”
“That’s the way I feel about it.”
The boys entered the cabin. The door was unlocked and the place was deserted. It was sparsely furnished with only a small wooden table, two broken chairs and a few boxes.
“Nothing much here,” Frank remarked. “Still, it won’t do any harm to look around carefully.”
Joe came upon an empty bottle over in a corner, perhaps the bottle from which the men had been drinking on the afternoon of the picnic. Frank’s attention was attracted by a number of cigarette stubs on the table.
“Sometimes a little thing like a cigarette turns out to be a mighty valuable clue,” he observed, examining the stubs. Most of them were very short, but on one, a trifle longer than the rest, he found the letters RE. The rest of the word had been obliterated with the burning of the cigarette.
“I wonder what make of cigarettes they were smoking,” he said. He searched the cabin thoroughly and at last he found what he was looking for. Beneath one of the boxes he saw a crumpled paper package. He picked this up, unfolded it, and examined it carefully.
The package had once held cigarettes, and across the front he saw the name, “Red Ribbon Cigarettes.”
“Not much of a clue there,” laughed Joe. “All gone up in smoke.”
“You never can tell,” returned his brother, pocketing the package.
“Better be careful. If mother finds that package in your pocket she’ll think you’ve been smoking.”
“Mother knows us well enough to know we don’t smoke,” Frank said. “I have a hunch that this little package may come in handy some day.”
Although the boys searched the bare little cabin high and low, they found nothing else that might help them. Their search for clues appeared to have been a failure.
“Ducroy and his friends were too wise to leave any notes that might incriminate them,” Joe said, as they went away. “I guess we’ll have to tackle the case from another angle.”
“Dad’s handling it to the best of his ability, and I guess he will be in a position to get information that we’ll never run across. All we can do is to keep our ears open and, if we hear anything, let him know.”
The boys returned to Bayport, somewhat disappointed; but when they were near their home they dismissed the mail bag mystery from their minds, for they met Chet Morton and Biff Hooper.
“Just who we were looking for!” exclaimed Chet. “We called at the house, but your mother said you had gone out.”
“What’s up?” asked Joe.
“Why, Biff and I thought it would be a fine afternoon to take a little boat trip. I thought we could go down to Cabin Island and see that everything is in shape. We can find out what we need to take down there for our outing. I know we left some kitchen dishes and other things there last winter, but they may be gone by now. We can look the place over and make a list of what we’ll have to bring along.”
“You’re going on the trip, aren’t you?” asked Biff.
“Sure, we’re going. I guess it isn’t too late in the day to
