“I wonder what that means,” Larry thought. “That apartment was vacant yesterday. I wonder if it’s been rented. If it has I don’t like the looks of the tenants. However, it’s on the floor below us, so I don’t suppose it makes much difference.”
Larry asked his mother, before going to bed that night, if she knew anything about the people in the rooms below.
“I did not know they had been rented,” said Mrs. Dexter.
“Maybe they are sneak thieves,” said Larry. There had been a number of cases of late of men sneaking into tenement houses, and, while the people were temporarily away from their apartments, ransacking the places.
“I think I’ll speak to the janitor about it,” said Larry. “He’ll know if they have rented the rooms or not.”
The janitor lived in rooms in the basement, and Larry, after cautioning his mother to keep her door locked, went downstairs.
“Yes, I rented the rooms to three men, late this afternoon,” the janitor told Larry. “They said they were bachelors and didn’t have much furniture. I didn’t like the looks of the fellows, but I couldn’t say anything, as they paid cash in advance.”
“Did they move their stuff in?” asked Larry.
“Not that I saw,” replied the janitor. “If they did they must have brought it in hand satchels, for there have been no trucks bringing any furniture.”
“Some of them are in the rooms now,” Larry went on.