“Well, it’s not so easy to trace a criminal as some people think,” returned his twin. “Sometimes they catch a crook more by good luck than by cleverness.”
“Well, then, let’s hope that we have luck in landing these bandits,” came from Fred. “Wish I could get my hands on ’em!”
The next day was a busy one for the older Rovers. A conference was held at the offices in Wall Street, and this was attended by the fathers of the boys, as well as by Songbird Powell, Fred Garrison, and several other men. Somewhat to the Rovers’ surprise, Mr. Stevenson was not present.
“Mr. Stevenson hasn’t answered any of our telegrams,” said Dick to his brothers, just as the conference got under way. “Perhaps he’s away from home and hasn’t even heard of the hold-up.” And this surmise proved to be correct.
The outsiders at the meeting wanted to know if the authorities had as yet reported anything of importance and were much disappointed when Dick stated that so far as he and his brothers knew no real information concerning the hold-up men had yet been brought to light.
“The authorities have a number of hold-up men under suspicion,” said he. “And all of these are being watched by the detectives. One of the older detectives thinks this job may have been engineered by two fellows known as Lefty Ditini, so called because he’s left-handed, and Black Ronombo, two fellows who are supposed to be West Indians or, possibly, Mexicans. They’re also looking for three slick bandits who have been operating in Philadelphia and Buffalo, because they handle jobs in exactly the same way this affair was handled.”
Dick then went on making a little speech and recited such particulars of the affair as he could and ended by telling of the securities that were missing and of the fact that the insurance on the documents had run out, owing to the neglect of one of their clerks.
“I presume we are responsible for not keeping track of the insurance,” he continued. “We should have watched that matter more closely.”
“Well, we’re all liable to make mistakes,” put in Gif Garrison’s father quickly. “Of course, it’s a great shock, Dick. But I want to say right now that I’m not going to blame either you or Tom or Sam for what has happened.”
“And neither am I going to blame you,” put in Songbird Powell. “Why, this hold-up might have happened to any of us. Wasn’t my house robbed last summer? While we were at dinner in the dining room the thieves crawled up on a second story porch and went through all the upper rooms, taking money and jewelry to the tune of over two thousand dollars. And we’ve never heard of what was stolen to this day.”