The platform was quite bare. The stone walls gave no opportunity of a hiding place. Their search had been in vain.
“We were fooled, I guess,” Frank admitted. “There hasn’t been anyone in this tower for years. I knew it as soon as I saw there were no footprints.”
The boys gazed moodily down over the city, and then down over the grounds of Tower Mansion. The roofs of the mansion itself were far below, and directly across from them rose the heavy bulk of the new tower.
“Do you think he might have meant the new tower?” exclaimed Joe suddenly.
“Dad said he specified the old one.”
“But he may have been mistaken. In the darkness and everything, perhaps he didn’t know the difference.”
“That’s possible, too. It’s certain that he didn’t hide anything in this tower, at any rate. Although why he should say ‘the old tower’—”
“Let’s ask Mr. Applegate if we can search the new tower, too.”
“What a fine chance we have! He’ll crow over us now in real earnest when we go back and tell him we didn’t find anything. He’ll say ‘I told you so,’ and if we try to get into the new tower he’ll just laugh at us.”
“It’s worth trying, anyway. We can tell him the whole story about Jackley. That ought to convince him.”
Disappointed, the Hardy boys descended through the trapdoor, and then made their way down through the tower until at last they were in the long gloomy hallway again. Their clothes were covered with dust and their hands and faces were grimy. Slowly, they trudged back into the