"I remember him!" cried the bookkeeper. "He was at the window, Mr. Rush, while you were at the safe. He must have watched you work the combination." CHAPTER X TOM, SAM, AND FARMER FOX For an instant there was a dead silence in the bankers' offices. Charles Rush looked blankly at his bookkeeper. "I believe Fredericks is right," said Mr. Wilder, the first to break the awkward pause. "I remember the fellow very well. I thought at the time that he was watching Mr. Rush rather closely." "You had no business to bring in a man that was not to be trusted," growled Charles Rush, turning to the janitor. "Do you think he stole the stuff?" ejaculated Subrug. "Sure Mooney wasn't smart enough for such a game." "Perhaps not, but he got others to help him," said Dick. "He got Buddy Girk and Arnold Baxter, I feel positive of it." "The whole thing fits together pretty well," said the detective. "If only we, can lay hands on these men the boy mentions, we'll be all right." A long conversation followed, and then Dick and the others went to the police station. The rooms at Yates' tenement were thoroughly searched once more, and a watch was set for Girk and Arnold Baxter. But the rascals had flown and the watch proved useless. In the meantime two detectives tried to trace what had become of Mooney, but this work also amounted to nothing, and it may be as well to add here that Mooney was never heard of again, having sailed for South America. Upon an accounting it was learned that Rush & Wilder were by no means in a good financial condition and that Senator Harrington would lose a good sum of money should they fail. "I'd give a thousand dollars to collar those thieves," said the senator dismally. "If Arnold Baxter and Girk got that money they'll live in high clover for a while," remarked Dick, when the excitement was over and they had returned to Frank's home. "My! what a villain that Baxter is proving to be! No wonder Dan was bad! It must run in the blood." The robbery kept the boys in Albany several days, and this being so, it was decided to abandon the trip on the river to New York. "I'll send the _Spray_ down by somebody," said Dick, "and then we can take a train from here direct to Oak Run," and so it was arranged. The trip to Oak Run proved to be uneventful. And at the railroad station they were met by Jack Ness, the Rovers' hired man, who had driven over with the carryall to take them home. "Glad to see you all looking so well," grinned the hired man. "Getting fat as butter, Master Tom." "Thanks, Jack, I'm feeling fine. Any news?" "No, sir, none exceptin' that your uncle has had a row with Joel Fox, who has the farm next to ours." "What was the row about?" questioned Dick. "All about some fruit, sir. We had a tree hangin' over Fox's fence--finest pear tree on the place, that was. Fox strips the tree at night, sir--saw him with my own eyes." "Oh, what cheek!" burst out Sam. "What did uncle do?"