Mr. Hardy was silent.

“I don’t know what to do,” said Perry. “I’d do anything to save him. But there’s nothing⁠—”

“There is nothing any of us can do now unless by some lucky chance the loot is recovered. That would clear everything up, of course. But in the meantime we just have to wait and hope.”

“And you can’t do anything more, Mr. Hardy?”

“A detective is not a miracle man, my boy,” said Fenton Hardy kindly. “He is only a man who is trained in tracing criminals. He has to go by the facts at his disposal. I have exhausted every line of action in this case. Everything that could be done, has been done.”

Perry Robinson got up, twisting his cap nervously in his hands.