So a party of three was hastily formed, and they drove off in John Wright’s wagon at a breakneck speed.
“Have you any idea what direction the robbers took?” questioned Bob, on the way.
“I reckon they cut toward Stampton,” said Wright. “We’ll see if they have learned anything new up to the house.”
When they reached Wright’s home, they found everything in confusion.
An entrance had been effected through a dining-room window, and the entire lower floor ransacked.
In one closet Mrs. Wright had had a quantity of silverware. This was gone, and with it a table spread in which the robbers had most likely tied up this part of their booty.
An old desk stood in a corner of the sitting-room. This desk held Wright’s private papers and also his strong box. It had been skilfully unlocked, and both the box and many of the documents were gone.
“And the box contained eighteen hundred dollars in cash,” said John Wright. “Plague take the luck! I ought to hev took that money to the Stampton bank.”
Bob began to look around carefully. Presently he stopped and picked up something lying on the floor near the looted desk. It was a short clay pipe.
“That settles it,” he said, holding up the article. “That is the same pipe Grogan was smoking.”