Left to himself, Jack walked slowly up to his own room where his bag had been placed by one of the servants. The former major of the Colby Hall battalion had never been in a more serious mood than at present.
He realized that the hold-up in Wall Street might be fraught with dire results. If the securities were not recovered The Rover Company might go bankrupt and the fortunes that it had taken years to accumulate might be completely swept away.
“Dad and the rest of us would have to start all over again,” he told himself. “I’m young, and it wouldn’t be such a hard thing for me to do, but it would certainly be rough on dad and Uncle Sam and Uncle Tom, not to say anything about mother and Aunt Nellie and Aunt Grace and the girls.”
Then Jack’s thoughts drifted to the Stevensons and he walked over to the chiffonier upon which, in a pretty silver frame, rested a photograph of Ruth, a smiling, tantalizing picture that made Jack’s heart jump every time he gazed at it. What effect would this loss have upon Mr. Stevenson and his daughter? Would Ruth’s father blame the officers of The Rover Company for neglect in not looking after the insurance and in not safeguarding the offices better? What would Ruth have to say when he saw her or when she wrote to him, provided she did write?
“Maybe she won’t write at all,” he thought dolefully. “Her father may be as mad as a hornet and she may take his part. And then, if we lose all our money, what right will I have to ask her to wait for me when there is such a rich chap as Joe Sedley hanging around? I’m sure he’d marry her in a minute if he could get her,” and then Jack heaved a long sigh that came from the very bottom of his heart.
CHAPTER XVII
REAL FRIENDS
The conference in Tom Rover’s library lasted until well past midnight. There were present not only the Rovers, but a number of other business men, and all sorts of plans for continuing business at the offices in Wall Street were thrashed out.
Several of the outsiders were liberal with their advice, but when it came to real assistance Dick Rover and his brothers quickly realized that they would have to depend almost entirely on themselves for whatever was done.
The boys were not wanted at this conference, and so withdrew to the library in Jack’s home. Here the four held a discussion fully as animated as that going on next door.