They found the door locked, but the landlady had a duplicate key, and soon opened it. Nothing appeared disturbed.
“His clothes all seem to be here,” said the boarding mistress, as she looked in a closet. “Of course some things may be missing, but we can’t tell until Mr. Witherby comes home. Oh, to think of a sneak-thief being in my house!”
“What makes you think Mr. Witherby came home?” asked the young reporter, making up his mind to say nothing of the man with the false beard.
“Because I heard some one come in, and he walked just as my lodger does. Some one went upstairs to Mr. Witherby’s room. You know he often comes out this way on banking business, and then he stops in his room. He’s often done it, and of course I thought it was him this time. Oh, dear!”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry,” advised Larry. “The person you heard come in was probably a sneak-thief, who used a skeleton key. He didn’t appear to be carrying much away with him, at any rate.”
“I can’t tell how much my boarders may have been robbed of until they come home,” the landlady said. “Oh, what a disgrace to my house!”
“It is too bad,” admitted Larry, “but perhaps he got nothing. He was probably frightened by hearing us in the hall. I’ll stop on my way down the street and send up the first policeman I meet, if you wish.”
“I wish you would,” said the woman. “I’d feel safer.” Larry concluded this was a good chance for him to get away without again bringing up the matter of engaging a room, and so he hurried out. He met an officer, and, briefly describing the case, advised him to call at the boarding-house.
“Well, things are getting tangled up more than ever,” thought the young reporter, as he walked toward the railroad station. “Witherby lives near some of the million-dollar bricks, and he had a chance to use them. But did he? That’s the question.
“Then there’s this false-beard business and the sneak-thief, though I suppose they only make one clew together. I don’t see how I can connect them with the bank mystery. The sneak-thief probably came in wearing a beard, and something went wrong with it. Then he decided to adopt the disguise of a false moustache. It was a clever trick. I wish I could have caught him. I guess I’ll get back, and have a talk with Mr. Bentfield.”