“Well, as for that, I guess we’d all like to do it,” came from Jack.
When the boys returned to Riverside Drive they found that Martha and Mary had just arrived. The girls were excited and tried to ask a dozen questions at once.
“Mrs. Stevenson was just as upset as anybody,” said Martha in reply to a question from her brother. “Mr. Stevenson was away on a fishing trip and she didn’t know how to get hold of him. And what do you think, Jack? Half of the money that Ruth’s father put into The Rover Company belonged to Mrs. Stevenson! So she’ll stand to lose just as much as her husband.”
“And what did Ruth have to say about the affair?”
“Oh, she didn’t know what to say. It took them both so much by surprise that they were almost stunned. Then Mrs. Stevenson went into hysterics when she thought all that money might be lost, and Ruth had all she could do to quiet her.”
“Did Ruth blame dad for what happened?”
“She did and she didn’t. She thought it was awfully queer that none of the officers of the company was at the offices when the hold-up happened and she also thought it was queer that they should have had so many securities on hand. She thought such valuable things were either kept locked in the safe or else locked in the bank vaults.”
“Well, dad would have been there, only he got the fake ’phone call that mother had been hurt in a subway accident. And as for having the securities on hand, there is a good explanation about that, although I’m afraid I can’t just explain it to you. Some of these securities were being listed to be sold. They all had to be inspected, and that was the reason they were at the offices and not in the bank vaults. Of course, the majority of them were in the office safe, but that was open because it is usually kept open during office hours. Dad says, however, that they should have been locked in an inner compartment, although he supposes the bandits could easily have opened such a compartment with the tools they probably carried.”
“Well, it’s too bad. Mrs. Stevenson cried quite a good deal and once she let out that she expected to give Ruth five thousand dollars’ worth of the securities when Ruth became of age and another five thousand on her wedding day, if she ever got married.”
“Well, it’s too bad, Martha, and nobody feels it any more than I do,” answered Jack, and turned away, his lips quivering.