THE FIRST CLEW
The janitor of the building was Mike Donovan, an aged Irishman, who
was assisted in his work by his wife and his daughter Kittie, aged
about fifteen.
"'Tis me yez want to see?" queried Donovan, as he shuffled into the
inner office, hat in hand.
"You are the janitor of this building?" questioned Dick, looking him
over carefully.
"I am that, sur."
"Can you tell me who is in the habit of cleaning this particular
office?"
"Well, sur, we are all after takin' a hand at it. I ginerally do the
swapin', and me wife or Kittie, me daughter, do the winder clanin' an'
the dustin'."
"During the past four or five days, have you noticed anything unusual
around this office?" went on Dick.
"Phat are ye after mainin'?"
"I'll tell you. There has been a robbery here, and we want to get at
the bottom of it."
"I haven't touched a thing, sur, an' nather have me family!" cried the
janitor, quickly.
"You look like an honest man, and I can't say that I suspect you,"
continued Dick, for he saw that the old janitor was evidently much
hurt. "I want you to help me all you can, that is all."
"Sure, sur, an' I'll be after doin' that, Mr. Rover. Phat did they be
after takin'?"
"This safe, here, has been looted, and a small box that contained
sixty-four thousand dollars' worth of bonds is gone."
At this announcement the old janitor threw up both hands and faltered
back a step or two.
"Sixty-four thousand, dollars, did you be after sayin'?" he gasped,
thinking he had not heard aright.
"That is what I said. Now then, just put on your thinking cap, and
see if you can remember anything unusual that happened around here two
or three days ago."
"Two or three days ago. Let me see," mused the janitor, scratching his
head. "I don't remember anything--Oh, yes, I do!" he burst out.
"What was that?" queried all three of the Rovers, while the office boy
looked on with mouth wide open.
"'Twas one avenin' about siven or eight
o'clock. Me an' me family were up stairs, clanin' out an office that
has just been rinted. Kittie, me gurrel, wint down stairs for some
extra dustin' rags. Whin she came back, she said she saw a man
a-walkin' through the hallway outside. She said that as soon as he saw
her, he didn't wait for the illevator, but went down the stairs in a
big hurry."
"Did she know the man?"
"She did not. At least, she said she didn't recognize him, for, you
see, there was only one little light burnin' in the hallway, because
nearly all the tinnents had gone home. The illevator wouldn't have
been runnin', only we was goin' to take up the stuff to the office we
was cleanin' on the fifth floor."
"Your daughter saw that man in the hallway?" questioned Tom. "Did he
seem to come from these offices?"
"No, I axed her particular, and she said he seemed to be comin' from
the back av the hall."
"What is back there?" asked Sam.
"A winder wid a fire escape outside," answered the janitor. "Likewise,
I've a sink closet there, where I keep me brooms and me brushes and
such."
"And you have no idea who the man was?" questioned Dick.
"No, sur. I axed Kitty how he looked, but she said she hadn't seen his
face--that he turned away from her and went down the stairs as fast
as he could."
"More than likely that was the thief!" exclaimed Tom. "The question
is: Who is he and where did he go?"
"Did your daughter say how the man was dressed?" asked Sam.
"Sure! She said he had on a dark suit of clothes and a dark, soft hat.
That's all she knew."
"Was he a big man?"
"Oh, she said he was about middlin' big."
This was all the old janitor could tell, and a little later he brought
in both his wife and his daughter to be interviewed. The girl was
almost scared to death, and could add nothing to what her father had
already told.
"Well, it's a clew, even if it is a slight one," was Tom's comment.
"Dick, I guess the best thing you can do is to call up police
headquarters."
"I'll do it. But please remember one thing," went on the oldest Rover
boy, turning to the janitor and his family and also the office boy.
"We want to keep this as quiet as possible for the present, so please
don't say anything about it." And all of them promised to keep silent.
It did not take long for Dick to get into communication with the
authorities, and after a short talk over the telephone, he was told
that a couple of detectives would be sent down to his once without
delay.
"Have you told Mr. Powell?" questioned Tom, suddenly.
"No, but I will call him up now," answered his older brother.
Of course the lawyer was astonished at the news, and asked what steps
had been taken to apprehend the thief. When told that the authorities
had been asked to take charge of the case, he wanted to know if he
could be of any assistance.
"I don't see how you can help us, Mr. Powell," answered Dick, over the
wire. "I suppose we will have to put the whole matter in the hands of
the police."
"Well, if I can do anything at all, let me know," answered Songbird's
uncle. "I am rather busy now, but as soon as I am at leisure, I will
call and talk the matter over with you."
Inside of half an hour the two detectives from headquarters arrived.
They were bright, sharp-eyed individuals, and they got down to
business without delay. They asked Dick innumerable questions, and
looked carefully at the safe, trying the combination several times,
and then inspected the offices and the hallway. After that they
subjected Kittie Donovan to a close examination, getting the girl to
tell everything she could possibly think of regarding the strange man
she had seen on the evening when the robbery had occurred.
"I think I know who did this job," said one of the detectives to the
other.
"Looks like the work of one of three men to me," returned the other
sleuth. "Baldy Jackson, Slim Martin, or Hank the Bluffer."
"You may be right, Joe, but I think it was Hank. If I've got the dope
right, those other two fellows you mention are not near New York just
now."
"Well, if Baldy and Slim can prove that they weren't around New York
at the time, then I'll agree with you that it was Hank who lifted that
box," returned the other detective.
"Who is this Hank the Bluffer?" questioned Dick, curiously.
"Oh, he's an old one at this sort of game," returned one of the
detectives. "He is a wonder at opening safes. Somebody told me once
that he made the assertion he could open any ordinary office safe
inside of fifteen minutes. He's got it all in his finger ends. They
are so sensitive that when he turns the safe knob, he can feel every
movement of the tumblers inside."
"And he is at liberty now?" asked Sam.
"He was the last I heard of him. He got out of a Massachusetts prison
about three months ago. Somebody told me he was in New York. I haven't
seen him, but if he is here I think we can round him up sooner or
later."
"Well, what we want are those bonds," declared Dick.
"Oh, sure! That's what we'll go after," declared the detective. "Even
if we locate our man, we won't arrest him until we can get him with
the goods."
Following this conversation, the detectives made a memorandum of all
the bonds that had been taken, along with the numbers thereon.
"If the thief is an old one at the game, it's not likely that he'll
try to use those registered bonds," said one of the detectives, "but
he'll find plenty of places where he can use the others, if he knows
the game."
"I'm inclined to agree with you on one point," said Dick. "And that is
that no ordinary person could have worked the combination of that
safe. It must have been some professional."
"You are right, Mr. Rover--unless somebody got the figures of the
combination on the sly," answered the sleuth; and a few minutes later
he and his fellow-officer left, promising to make a report as soon as
anything worth while was brought to light.
Having gotten rid of the detectives and also of the janitor and his
family, the Rover boys shut themselves in the inner office to discuss
the situation. They had requested the authorities to keep the whole
matter quiet for the present, and this the detectives had agreed to
do.
"Now, first of all, Dick, tell us: Will this loss affect any of our
other investments?" asked Tom.
"Not for the present, Tom, but how we shall stand later on if the
securities are not recovered, I am not prepared to say." Dick's face
clouded. "You see, it is this way: We have our investments in the West
as well as those we went into in Boston some time ago. We--that is,
dad--was going to take a loan on that mining proposition. That would
involve our putting up some of those bonds--say forty or fifty
thousand dollars' worth--as collateral security with the banks. Now,
if we don't get the bonds back, dad will either have to cancel that
loan or, otherwise, put up something else as security--and what else
we can put up just now, I don't know. It's a bad state of affairs."
"Oh, we've just got to get those bonds back!" cried Sam, impulsively.
"We've just got to!"
"Easy enough to say, Sam, but wishing them back isn't going to bring
them back," came from Tom, grimly.
"If we only had a little more of a clew to work on, we, ourselves,
might try to get those bonds back instead of relying on the
detectives," said Dick. "But when you haven't any clews, how are you
going to strike out?"
"We might try to find that strange man, whoever he is," suggested Tom.
"Although looking for him would be a good deal like looking for the
proverbial pin in the haystack. I would rather dig up the whole of the
Atlantic seacoast looking for Captain Kidd's treasure;" and he smiled
grimly.