Two days slipped by and the authorities continued to do what they could about the hold-up, but without making material progress. In the meantime The Rover Company had called in the services of a private detective agency and the men of this concern also went over the ground carefully, trying to gain some clue which might enable them to run down the evildoers.
All of the clerks in the offices were questioned over and over again, and presently Ken Greene was given such a grilling that he grew angry and announced in a loud voice that he would give up his job.
“I didn’t do anything wrong and I’m not going to be made the goat in this affair,” grumbled Greene, a tall, sallow-faced lad with rather shifty eyes. “Getting that insurance renewed was the business of the officers of this company. All you are paying me here is thirty dollars a week salary, and I can get that anywhere, and more too! I’m through!”
“You have simply saved yourself, Greene, from being discharged,” answered Dick cheerfully. “I was going to fire you Saturday, anyway. You can go at once. And don’t expect any recommendations.”
“I’m not asking for them,” was the quick retort, and then, having received his wages, Ken Greene put on his hat and coat and left the offices, banging the door after him.
“I think that fellow ought to be followed and watched,” declared Tom to his brothers, when he saw Greene getting ready to leave.
“Say the word, Dad, and I’ll follow him,” put in Randy quickly. He and his brother were down at the offices at the time.
“All right, go ahead and do it. Only see that you don’t get into any trouble. If Greene does anything that looks suspicious, telephone here or to the police.”
The twins crowded into the elevator with Greene, who looked at them rather suspiciously. However, when the street floor was gained the clerk pushed his way out in a crowd of people and then Andy and Randy, though watching him, managed to keep out of the fellow’s sight. Greene walked up to Broadway and there boarded a street car, getting off at Eighth Street and walking westward. Presently they saw him enter one of a long row of houses. It was a boarding establishment kept by a Mrs. Dorsey, as they could see by a sign over the doorbell.
“Now the question is, is he going to stay at home awhile or will he be coming out soon?” remarked Randy.
“That remains to be seen,” answered his twin. “We might as well take it easy,” and, obtaining a pint of freshly-roasted peanuts from a stand at the corner, the boys stationed themselves in a convenient doorway and started to watch.
In less than half an hour their vigilance was rewarded by seeing Ken Greene come forth from the boarding house. He had changed his suit and hat and now carried a tan suitcase in his hand.
“He’s bound for somewhere!” exclaimed Andy. “Come on quick—don’t let him slip us in the crowd.”
Taking more care than ever that Greene should not see them, they followed the ex-clerk as he walked eastward crosstown until he reached the subway at Astor Place. Here he boarded a train going uptown, and they followed, keeping half a length of a crowded car between them and the man they were shadowing.
“Got any money with you, Randy?” questioned his twin, as the train rolled uptown. “I’ve got the whole of forty cents with me.”
“I’ve got eighty-five cents. I didn’t expect to use anything more than my car fare when I went downtown.”
“Then if this fellow rides very far or does any other sort or traveling, we’ll be stumped.”
In a very few minutes the train reached Forty-second Street, and here Ken Greene alighted and rushed over to one of the ticket windows in the Grand Central Terminal. Here he stopped for several minutes and then moved over to another window where Pullman accommodations were to be had.
“Excuse me!” exclaimed Randy, pushing his way up to the first window directly Greene had gone. “Did my friend who was just here get his ticket all right enough?” he asked the clerk while the lady who had expected to be waited on glared at him in anger.
“Who do you mean? The fellow who just got the ticket for the South?” questioned the clerk pleasantly.
“I want to know if he got his ticket all the way through. I want to get mine just like it,” stated Randy.
“You’ll have to take your turn in line.”
“Sure! And I beg your pardon,” went on the Rover boy, bowing to the lady in question politely. “Only I wanted to make sure how far that ticket went. I don’t want to go one way and have him go another. He slipped me in the crowd.”
“He got a ticket to Galveston by the way of St. Louis.”
“Oh, that’s what I wanted to know! Thank you very much,” and Randy slipped out of the crowd and rejoined his brother.
Ken Greene was already leaving the Pullman window, and now the twins saw him turning toward one of the gates leading to the train shed.
“He bought a ticket for Galveston, Texas,” whispered Randy excitedly. “What do you think we ought to do?”
“We might have him held, but I think the best thing we can do is to let him go on. If he’s in this plot and going to Galveston, he’s doing it for a purpose. Let’s make sure he gets on the train and find out if we can just what Pullman car he takes and what the number of the train is. Then, if the police want to do anything, they can have him arrested on the way.”
They watched Ken Greene go through the gate and then Randy persuaded the gateman to allow him to pass without a ticket, stating that it was a matter of great importance concerning a fellow who had just gone on ahead. Then Randy, still keeping out of sight, saw Greene enter car No. 4 and take a seat by one of the windows. A few minutes later the train rumbled away out of the station.
“Well, that’s that!” said Randy, as he rejoined his brother. “We’ve got the number of the train and the number of the car and I know he’s seated on the left-hand side about the center, so the authorities can locate him almost anywhere along the line.”
“Now that he’s gone, might it not pay to go back to the boarding house and see if we can learn something more about him?” suggested Andy. “His boarding mistress might tell us something that would be valuable.”
It did not take the twins long to return to the boarding house. There they found out that the boarding mistress was in a hospital and that a girl scarcely more than their own age was in charge.
“Yes, Mr. Greene left just a short while ago,” said the girl. “He had gotten word that an aunt of his was sick and that he would have to go and see her immediately.”
“Did he say where the aunt lived or what her name was?” questioned Randy.
“Why, he said the aunt lived in Rochester and that her name was Sobber—Mrs. Arabella Sobber.”
“Did he say when he would be back?”
“No. He said that would depend entirely on how he found his aunt. If she was very sick he might stay there quite a while.” And this was about all the girl could tell them.
“Evidently Ken Greene doesn’t hesitate to tell fairy tales when it suits his purpose,” was Andy’s comment when he and his twin were again on their way back to the offices in Wall Street. “Said he was going to Rochester and then takes a train for Galveston! Some little distance between those two places, if you ask me!”
“Did you catch that name—Sobber?” returned his brother. “That sounds familiar to me. I’ve heard my father mention that.”
“Tad Sobber was one of the rascals who tried to do Aunt Dora and her mother out of the fortune that was left by Mr. Stanhope. Sobber and a fellow named Sid Merrick went down to Treasure Isle and did their best to get the treasure in their possession. But their ship, the Josephine, was caught in a hurricane and went down with everybody on board excepting four sailors who escaped in a rowboat and were picked up in a steamer bound for Havana. Since that time Tad Sobber and the other rascals have never been heard of.”
“But if this Ken Greene is really related to the Sobbers, that would certainly make him no friend of our father, and especially no friend of Uncle Dick.”
“Probably not. In that case, Greene would most likely be only too willing to do an injury to those who had kept his relative from getting a whack at that money.”
The older Rovers listened with keen interest to what the twins had to relate and asked many questions concerning Greene. Then one of the detectives from the private agency was called in and he immediately took up the task of following this new lead.
In the meantime something else had happened at the homes on Riverside Drive which looked to Fred and Jack as if it might be of importance. Randy and the others had taken their undeveloped photographic films to a shop in the neighborhood, and now Mary and Martha, out for a walk, had brought the finished pictures back. In looking these over, Fred and Jack came upon the snapshot Randy had taken just before the touring car with the broken mudguard and broken headlight had bowled Andy over in the roadway and injured him.
It was a fairly good picture, only one corner of it being slightly light struck. It showed the groundhog passing under the back wheel of the touring car. The car itself seemed to have a big dent in the back. Two men were on the front seat and one fellow was in the rear. The latter had just turned around, evidently to gaze at the boy who was using the camera, so that his face was turned full toward the lens.
“It’s Nelson Martell!” exclaimed Jack, in amazement. “Nappy’s father! What do you know about that?”
“You’re right!” answered his cousin. “And that being so, more than likely one of the other men in the car was Slogwell Brown, for they always travel together, just like their sons.”
“This picture was taken after the hold-up at the offices. I wonder if there can be any connection between these two happenings.”
“I don’t know. But I should say that it would be a good thing to have the Martells and the Browns watched.”
When the others got home they examined the photographs with interest. Then the twins told the other boys of following Ken Greene and of how they had discovered he was a relative of their fathers’ former enemy, Tad Sobber.
“It certainly begins to look as if some of our old enemies were mixed up in this affair,” was Tom Rover’s comment. “The question is, how are we going at it to prove it?”
“The only thing I can think of to do is to place the detectives and the police in possession of all the facts,” answered Dick Rover.
“All sorts of things are piling in just now,” came from Fred’s father, after a slight pause. “I got a telegram from Captain Oran Corning that he would be at the house to see me either this evening or the first thing in the morning.”
“Oh, Dad, is he coming about that hunt for the Margarita?” cried Fred.
“Yes, but I’m afraid that I’ll have to disappoint the old captain. I’ll have to give my entire attention to this hold-up business now,” answered Sam Rover.
“I suppose that’s right,” came rather dolefully from his son. “Too bad! And just after I’ve been telling the other fellows all about it and we thought it would make a dandy outing for the crowd!”
“Anyway, it won’t hurt to listen to the old captain’s yarn, will it?” questioned Randy, who was eager to know more concerning the lost steam yacht.
“No, it won’t do any harm to listen to what Captain Corning has to say,” was the reply. “Just the same, it will be a bitter disappointment to the captain if we let him tell his whole story and then tell him that we can’t take part in the search he wants to make. He, of course, wants us to finance the hunt, or at least put up the larger part of the money that would be necessary. He has some funds, but not enough to see the affair through.”
Dinner was over and the boys and the men had just gotten together again when a servant came in and Captain Corning was announced.