“I can’t understand this any more than you can,” he announced, after this additional search had proved a failure. “I didn’t know we had any thieves around here. Are you sure you left the coat and cap on this rack?”
“Yes, I am positive,” announced Dave.
“I saw him do it, when I placed my own things on the same rack,” declared Ben.
“But you found your coat and cap all right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s mighty queer,” declared the young clerk, shaking his head. “I guess I’d better tell my father about this.”
The hotel proprietor was called, and he at once instituted a number of inquiries concerning the missing things. But all these proved of no avail. No one had taken Dave’s wearing apparel, and none of the hired help had seen any one else take the things or wear them.
“You should have taken your things up to your room last night,” declared the hotel proprietor, during the course of the search. “It’s a bad idea to leave things on a rack like this, with so many strangers coming and going all the time.”
He agreed to lend Dave a coat and a hat, and, donning these, the youth walked through the little 131 shelter leading to the stables, accompanied by his chums.
“If those things are not recovered I think you can hold the hotel man responsible,” remarked Roger.