“Go ahead, then. Go ahead,” said Miss Applegate, with a sigh. “Come around at this hour of morning, disturbing honest folks. Go ahead, and tear the old tower to pieces if you like. But I’ll be bound you won’t find anything. It’s all foolishness. You won’t find anything.”

“Perhaps the dust collects more quickly than we think. It may have covered his footprints over even within a couple of weeks.”

The next room was a duplicate of the first. It was bare and cheerless, deep in dust. There was not the slightest sign of a hiding place. Much less was there any indication that another human being had been in the tower for years.

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.

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 main part of the mansion again, and there they met Adelia Applegate, who popped out of a doorway as they were passing and cackled with delight.

“So these are the fine boys who were going to find the stolen stuff for us, eh!” she exclaimed, in her cracked voice. “So these are the boys who were so sure it was hidden in the old tower! Well, well! And they didn’t find anything after all!”

“I’m afraid we didn’t, Miss Applegate,” Frank answered, with a smile. “But if you and Mr. Applegate will let us tell our story I think we can convince you that we really thought the stuff was hidden there. Even yet I believe it is hidden somewhere in the mansion⁠—probably in the new tower.”

“In the new tower!” she sniffed. “Absurd! I suppose you’ll want to go poking through there now.”

“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“It would be too much trouble, indeed!” she shrilled. “I shan’t have any boys rummaging all through my house on a wild-goose chase like this. You’d better leave right away, and forget all this nonsense.”

Her voice had attracted the attention of Hurd Applegate, who came hobbling out of his study at that moment.

“Now what’s the matter?” he demanded. Then, seeing the boys, his face became creased in a triumphant smile.

“Ah, ha! So you didn’t find anything after all! Heh! Heh!” he began to chuckle, immensely pleased with himself. “I told you so.”

The New Tower

“They have the audacity to want to go looking through the new tower now,” said Miss Applegate, in high indignation.

Hurd Applegate’s smile vanished.