Thinking it would be useless to remain around the alleyway any longer, the four boys left the vicinity, and, boarding a street car, made their way to the thoroughfare upon which were located the offices of the bankers and brokers who had been robbed.

A crowd was collected about the place and two policemen were keeping those outside in check.

"I want my money!" one old man was shouting. "This is a game of Charley Rush to do us out of our cash. I don't believe the office was robbed at all."

"You keep quiet, or I'll run you in," replied, one of the policemen, and the old man lost no time in slinking out of sight.

"Can we go in?" asked Frank, and told who he was.

"I'll send in word and see," answered the policeman at the door.

"Oh, Frank!" came from the main office, and Senator Harrington beckoned to his son; and all four of the boys went in.

They found half a dozen men present, including the members of the firm, a detective, and the bookkeeper, a young man named Fredericks.

"You are the only one who had the combination besides ourselves, Fredericks," Charles Rush was saying to the bookkeeper. "I hate to suspect you, but--"

"Mr. Rush, you can't think I took that money and those securities!" gasped the bookkeeper, and fell back as if about to faint.

"I don't know what to think."

"I can give you my word I was not near the offices from four o'clock yesterday afternoon until I came this morning, after you."

"Have you spoken of the safe combination to anybody?"

"No, sir."

"Did you put the combination down in writing?" asked Mr. Wilder.

"No, I never did anything of that sort. The combination was an unusually easy one, as you know."

"Yes, far too easy for our good," groaned Mr. Rush. Then he gazed at the four boys curiously.

"What brought you here?" he asked.

"We thought we might know something of this affair," said d.i.c.k, and told his story.

"There may be something in that," said the detective.

"Especially if those men fail to turn up at that tenement again."

"Did you mention a man named Mooney?" cried Fredericks.

"I did."

"Do you know this Mooney?" put in Mr. Wilder to the bookkeeper.

"Subrug, the janitor, has a brother-in-law named Mooney--a wild kind of a chap who used to hang around more or less."

"We'll call Subrug in and find out where this Mooney is now,"

said Charles Rush.

The janitor proved to be a very nervous old man. "I don't know where Mooney is," he said. "He's been a constant worry to me.

He used to borrow money, but lately I wouldn't give him any more, and so he stopped coming around."

"Was he ever in here?"

The janitor thought for a moment. "I think he was, sir--about a month ago. He started to help me clean the windows, but he was too clumsy and I made him give it up."

"I remember him!" cried the bookkeeper. "He was at the window, Mr. Rush, while you were at the safe. He must have watched you work the combination."

CHAPTER X

TOM, SAM, AND FARMER FOX

For an instant there was a dead silence in the bankers' offices.

Charles Rush looked blankly at his bookkeeper.

"I believe Fredericks is right," said Mr. Wilder, the first to break the awkward pause. "I remember the fellow very well. I thought at the time that he was watching Mr. Rush rather closely."

"You had no business to bring in a man that was not to be trusted," growled Charles Rush, turning to the janitor.

"Do you think he stole the stuff?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Subrug. "Sure Mooney wasn't smart enough for such a game."

"Perhaps not, but he got others to help him," said d.i.c.k. "He got Buddy Girk and Arnold Baxter, I feel positive of it."

"The whole thing fits together pretty well," said the detective.

"If only we, can lay hands on these men the boy mentions, we'll be all right."

A long conversation followed, and then d.i.c.k and the others went to the police station.

The rooms at Yates' tenement were thoroughly searched once more, and a watch was set for Girk and Arnold Baxter.

But the rascals had flown and the watch proved useless.

In the meantime two detectives tried to trace what had become of Mooney, but this work also amounted to nothing, and it may be as well to add here that Mooney was never heard of again, having sailed for South America.

Upon an accounting it was learned that Rush & Wilder were by no means in a good financial condition and that Senator Harrington would lose a good sum of money should they fail.

"I'd give a thousand dollars to collar those thieves," said the senator dismally.

"If Arnold Baxter and Girk got that money they'll live in high clover for a while," remarked d.i.c.k, when the excitement was over and they had returned to Frank's home. "My! what a villain that Baxter is proving to be! No wonder Dan was bad! It must run in the blood."

The robbery kept the boys in Albany several days, and this being so, it was decided to abandon the trip on the river to New York.