In as few words as possible, Tom and Sam explained the situation and told their new stockholder what they had done and of the loans and extensions they were trying to obtain. While this was going on, Jack’s father came in and then the four men talked the matter over.
Presently Ruth’s father calmed down a little and showed that he was a little ashamed of the irritability he had first showed. However, he still insisted that the lapsing of the insurance policy on the securities was due to sheer neglect on the part of the officers of the company and intimated that it was up to them individually to make good any loss that was sustained thereby.
“We’re going to make the loss good if we possibly can, Mr. Stevenson,” said Jack’s father quietly. “It’s a heavy blow to us, but we hope to be able to weather it. Many of our old friends have come to us and assured us of their assistance, and that means a great deal.”
“Well, you can’t look to me for anything more,” returned Ruth’s father. “With my investment of fifty thousand dollars in this company and a further investment of a like amount in that estate up at Dexter’s Corners, I’m about as deep in financially as I want to go. Even as it is, if this loss down here isn’t made good I don’t know whether I’ll be able to finish the house up there or not.” And a little later Mr. Stevenson took his departure, declining Dick’s offer to take him up to the house for dinner.
“He’s sore—no two ways about that!” was Tom’s comment after the visitor had gone. “He’s as sore as a boil.”
“Well, you can’t altogether blame him, Tom,” answered Dick. “If we go to the wall he stands to lose fifty thousand dollars, one-half of which belongs to his wife. And, as he says, he may have to sacrifice some of the money he’s already put into the estate in the country.”
“Just the same, I thought he’d be a little better sport,” was Sam’s comment.
That evening Jack heard that Ruth’s father was in New York and had called at the offices. When he heard from his father and his uncles of what Ruth’s parent had said he was more disturbed than ever.
“If he doesn’t get his money back he’ll never forgive us,” Jack told himself. He had not forgotten how Mr. Stevenson had acted towards his relative, Barnard Stevenson, on Snowshoe Island when the boys were there for a winter outing. Then he thought of how Ruth and her mother had acted and his heart grew heavier than ever.
That night one of the detectives called at Dick Rover’s home with news that was decidedly interesting. He and one of his men had gotten on the trail of some men who had been found acting suspiciously on the Ten Brooks Road above the city on the evening of the day that the offices had been looted. From an old woman who lived on the road near a dense woods they learned that these men had been seen leaving one automobile and getting into another. The old woman had said that one of the men carried a square japanned box and that another had a similar box which was striped red.