“One of them was, but I don’t know anything about the others. Strange they should all be so eager to inspect the Rambler! Strange they should get off by themselves and talk in whispers! I reckon we’re knee-deep in mystery!”
“Well, where did you leave Alex.?” asked Jule. “He hasn’t come back yet!”
“And here’s another funny thing,” Clay went on, without answering the question, directly. “We saw Red, the Robber, up town, dressed like a gentleman! Alex. followed him out of the place where we saw him, and may have got into trouble!”
“Then the stealing of the bag is Red’s work!” decided Case. “No need to guess about that any more! How he got his men in with the banker I don’t know, but he did it, and one of them took it, and poor Chet saw that it was gone, and now he is following a bag filled with crockery about the city!”
“Pshaw!” Jule exclaimed. “It is dollars to doughnuts that Chet got the bag himself! He said he’d swipe it if he got a chance. You all know that!”
A figure now came dashing down the pier at break-neck speed and Alex. leaped on the deck and dropped into a chair, wiping the sweat from his face.
“Did you find who he was?” asked Clay, as the boys all gathered around Alex.
Alex. told the story of the steamer and the wrecked stateroom, and ended with the talk he had had with Red, while the boys looked on in wonder at the odd twist things were getting into. Even Teddy Bear seemed impressed by the mystery, Jule declared!
“And how did you get away from him?” demanded Case. “How did you get back here?”
“I jumped and ran, and he caught me,” was the reply. “Then he made me promise not to say a word about his escapade on the Rambler and let me go! Can you beat it?”