“These two lads,” said Mr. Applegate, indicating the Hardy boys. “They found it this morning.”
“Them kids?” scoffed Chief Collig. “I don’t believe it.”
“Well, there’s the stuff to prove it,” snapped Fenton Hardy.
“I’ve got my jewelry back, thanks to them,” declared Adelia Applegate shrilly. “They were smarter than the whole pack of you. If it wasn’t for them, the stuff would never have been found. And I was the one who didn’t want to let them search the old tower and who spoke crossly to them. Why, they’re real detectives, both of them.”
In all the talk and excitement that followed the clearing up of the Tower mystery, the Hardy boys received no compliment that they treasured so much as that remark of Adelia Applegate’s.
“Well,” said Chief Collig, scratching his head, “I’ll be bumped!”
He looked at Smuff.
“I’ll be bumped, too,” declared Smuff.
“This beats all,” said the chief.
“It does,” agreed his faithful satellite.
“Shut up!” snapped the chief. “Who asked you to say anything?”
“Nobody.”
“Well, then, keep quiet. A fine detective you are! Why didn’t you think of that? The old tower! Of course he meant the old water tower. What else could he have meant? But you wouldn’t think of it. Not in a hundred years—you wouldn’t think of it. What kind of a detective are you, anyway? Here was a case that was as simple as A.B.C. and you couldn’t think of it. You let yourself be beat by a couple of boys!”