"Now, Adelia, I think they meant well—"
"Meant well! Of course they meant well! And what did it gain you? They have prowled through the place all morning and all the good that's come of it is that perhaps you won't be so ready to believe the next cock-and-bull story some one tells you. Go back to your stamps, Hurd Applegate, and let it be a lesson to you. As for you boys, you should be ashamed of yourselves, disturbing folks like this!"
Whereupon she escorted the Hardy boys to the door, while Hurd Applegate, muttering sadly, went back to his study with a puzzled air.
CHAPTER XIX
The Mystery Deepens
Fenton Hardy was dumbfounded when his sons returned to him with the news that the loot had been found in neither the old tower nor the new. So implicitly had he believed in the dying confession of Red Jackley that he had not even bothered to join in the search, preferring to let his sons have the satisfaction of recovering the stolen goods that he was positive were hidden in the old tower.
"And you're sure you searched the place thoroughly?" he asked, for the third time.
"Every inch of it. There was nothing in the old tower. No one had been there in weeks," answered Frank.
"How could you tell?"
"By the dust. It hadn't been disturbed. There wasn't a footprint of any kind."