Watching his chance, the absconder slipped into the vault with the bag containing the million. Unobserved he pulled out the two ledgers, smeared some liquid glue on their backs, and stuck the backs on the narrow end of the valise. The valise, with the money, he slipped into the space occupied by the books, the ledger backs being outward. It fitted perfectly, and no one looking at the row of old ledgers in the vault would have suspected that two of them consisted of backs only. They were just then, however, worth half a million each. The bulky pages of the ledgers, and the side covers, Norton hid under a pile of dusty, old books.
He now had the million safely hidden away, and it was an easy matter for him, each day, to slip into the vault, and take out a bundle or two of bills. For he had access to the vaults, often having to consult the books there. He always took care to go in alone. In this way, in about a week, he had removed the million, leaving the valise where Larry found it.
And so he got the money, and no one suspected him, for he had a good reputation, and he remained at his work in the bank, though how much nerve it took only he knew.
The rest of the story, how Larry followed the wrong man, though the one to whom suspicion pointed, has been told.
“And now I’m ready to take my medicine,” finished Norton. “I thought, after deciding it was time for me to escape, that I could get away. But you caught me. Go, send in your story, Mr. Dexter.”
Which Larry did, by long distance ’phone. It was too late for the regular edition of the Leader, but Mr. Emberg ordered an extra, and thus Larry secured one of the biggest scoops of his life. For the story was a “beat,” and Peter Manton, when the extra came out, said:
“I told you so. I knew Larry would pull it off!”
“Extra! Extra!” yelled the newsboys, with copies of the Leader under their arms, as they raced about the City Hall, and along Park Row. “Extra! Full account of the million-dollar robbery! Robber caught! Million found! Reporter solves de big bank mystery!”
There is little more to tell. After telephoning in his story Larry deposited the money in the town bank, and started for New York. He bade Norton good-bye—and a sad farewell it was, but the clerk looked better than he had when Larry stopped him so suddenly on the road.
“I couldn’t have kept my secret much longer,” he confessed. “All the while I was working in the bank I never knew at what moment suspicion would fall on me. I’m glad it’s over.”