"School called off for to-day?" asked Joe eagerly. "No, no. Nothing like that. It's about the Robinsons." "What's happened now?" "Mr. Robinson has been arrested again." The Hardy boys stared at her as though thunderstruck. "What for?" demanded Frank, in astonishment. "Over that robbery at Tower Mansion. He has been working in the city lately and Chief Collig sent Detective Smuff for him last night. Iola and I were over to see the Robinson girls last night and they told us about it. Smuff should be back by now." "Well, can you beat that!" exclaimed Frank. "I wonder what's the big idea of arresting him again?" "It seems the chief has an idea that Mr. Robinson was in league with this man Jackley, the man your father got the confession from. He told Mrs. Robinson last night that he was sure Mr. Robinson had the stuff hidden somewhere and that he was going to find out. He was perfectly mean and nasty about it, and Mrs. Robinson doesn't know what to do." The Hardy boys looked at one another. The affair had suddenly assumed more serious proportions. "If Mr. Robinson is brought back, he'll lose his job, and he had a hard time getting it, anyway," said Iola. "The worst of it is," said Frank slowly, "that the case looks pretty bad against Mr. Robinson." "You don't think they'll send him to the penitentiary?" "It looks bad. The thief said he hid the stuff in the old tower. When we looked for it, the stuff wasn't there. About the only person that could have found it and taken it away, was Mr. Robinson himself." "He wouldn't do it!" declared Iola indignantly. "We're sure he wouldn't. But a jury mightn't be so easy to convince." It was time to go into school at that moment and they went to their classrooms, Frank and Joe deeply worried by what they had just heard. At recess that morning they met Jerry, Phil, Tony and Chet Morton, and told them the news. All the boys were highly concerned over this sudden turn in events. "This will be tough on Perry," said Phil. "It'll be tough on the whole family," Chet declared. "They've had enough trouble over this dirty affair as it is." The boys discussed the situation from all angles and racked their brains for some way whereby they could help the Robinsons, but they were reluctantly forced to admit that only by actual discovery of the hidden loot could Mr. Robinson be cleared of suspicion in connection with the robbery. "Even if he were tried and acquitted, it would be a stain on his reputation for the rest of his life, as long as the treasure isn't recovered," Frank summed up. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Joe said. "We've done all we could, and it hasn't been enough." "And dad has done the same. I'm sorry, on his account. He was so sure he had cleared the whole thing up when he got the confession from Jackley. But there was something lacking."