The bare details of the hold-up were simple enough. The affair had occurred a few minutes before the regular time for closing the offices. As said before, Tom and Sam had been called out of town by fake telegrams and Dick had been called away by a telephone message which stated that his wife Dora had been hurt in a subway accident uptown. At the time of the hold-up one clerk and a messenger boy had been away from the offices on business, and as this was the dull season of the year a number of the others were away on their vacations. This left but a head bookkeeper and three clerks in charge when the bandits had entered quietly, closing and locking the door behind them.
The bandits had worn handkerchiefs tied across the lower parts of their faces and had had caps well drawn down over their foreheads. Each had been armed and, afraid of being shot, the head bookkeeper and the three clerks had submitted with scarcely a protest. They had been driven into a closet used for the storage of records and there they had been told to make a noise at the risk of their lives, and then the door had been locked upon them.
Having disposed of the help, the bandits had lost no time in looting the unlocked safe and also going through all the desks, breaking open those which were locked. They had worked quickly but effectively and had carried off everything of value.
As yet the total loss was problematic for the reason that it was not known how many of the securities which had been stolen were negotiable. Roughly speaking, the Rovers estimated that the loss would not be less than one hundred thousand dollars and might go to almost twice that amount.
The head bookkeeper was a middle-aged man named Frank Mason, and he had been with The Rover Company since its beginning. Mason was a good deal of a plodder, but all of the Rovers felt that he was thoroughly honest and could not have been connected in any way with the hold-up.
“It came like a thunder clap, Mr. Rover! Just like a thunder clap!” exclaimed Frank Mason in a wavering voice when questioned. “I was never more surprised in my life than when I looked up and saw that man with a handkerchief tied over his face and with a pistol pointed right at my head.”
“Have you any idea who the man was—or, in fact, who any of the men were?” Dick asked.
“Not the slightest, sir. I’m quite certain they were all strangers to me.”
Mason’s story was largely the story told by the other clerks. One of the young fellows, named Bronson, and another named Greene, had tried to make the Rovers and the police detectives believe that they had wanted to resist. But they had done nothing and the detectives were of the opinion that they had submitted meekly and were now drawing on their imaginations in the hope of getting their names in the limelight.
Half a dozen clues were being followed up, but so far without results. Several strangers who had been seen in and around the building before and after the hold-up were questioned by the authorities, and one of the men was taken to police headquarters and kept over night. But nothing could be proved against this individual except that he was a good-for-nothing rounder, and he was allowed to go with the admonition to get out of the city as quickly as possible.