“I don’t believe he found anything worth taking,” said Hiram, “because we made it a point never to keep valuables in our bags, outside of those rolls belonging to your Professor McEwen.”
“If anything worth a considerable amount had been stolen,” ventured Rob, “I’d have stopped Andy before now from destroying one of the finest clues that could ever be found. I mean that finger-print so plainly marked on the bosom of your white shirt. With the modern methods used by the police to fix a crime on a criminal, that dark impression of his fingers would prove the fellow guilty in case they could use a drag net and round-up a bunch of suspects.”
Tubby stood and watched the others work, gathering their belongings together. Both Hiram and Andy growled occasionally because the thief in his haste to look through everything had jumbled things considerably.
“What did he want to waste his precious time for trying to find anything worth while in the belongings of three boys?” Andy asked, as though he had a personal grievance against the rogue who had entered their rooms with a duplicate key, since they had certainly found the door locked.
Struck with an idea, Rob stepped over to one of the windows and looked out.
“Think he may have climbed in from some fire-escape, don’t you, Rob?” demanded Tubby, who had noted this move on the part of the scout leader.
“The idea struck me,” admitted Rob, “but it only took one look to tell me such a thing is quite impossible, and out of the question. No, he must have come in by the door.”
“And went out the same way?” continued Tubby.
“Yes, after upsetting our things in the way he did,” pursued Rob.
“I s’pose he found out that the owners of the trunk and bags were only three boys,” Tubby went on to say in his logical way, “and then he threw up the game; no use expecting to run across jewelry or any extra cash in baggage belonging to boys seeing the Fair.”