LITMIR.BIZ

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I’m glad the old man isn’t dead,” said Bob. “But how did the robbery happen? How did the thief get in the strong room?”

      “I don’t know. You’d better go over and find out for yourself. There’s no use asking Sam Drayton, for he won’t know.”

      “I understand he came over here to get help from our police,” stated Bob.

      “I don’t know that he’s much better off than if he stayed at home,” chuckled Mr. Dexter. “But go ahead, Bob. I guess the store will still be doing business when you get back.”

      “I hope so, Uncle Joel. Thanks,” and Bob ran out to his flivver, intending to hurry and pick up Ned and Harry and make a quick trip to Storm Mountain.

      However, he found his chums already on hand. They had come over to get him, having prevailed on their fathers to let them off for the remainder of the day.

      “Old Rip Van Winkle isn’t dead after all – that was a false report, Bob!” exclaimed Ned, who, with Harry, insisted on giving Hiram Beegle the name of Irving’s mythical character.

      “So I heard.”

      “But there’s been a big robbery,” said Harry.

      “I heard that, too.”

      “Say, is there anything you haven’t heard?” inquired Ned, admiringly.

      “Well, that’s really all I do know,” admitted Bob. “I haven’t any particulars and it seems as much of a mystery as before. Let’s go!”

      They found a curious throng gathered about the lonely cabin of the old man, with Chief Drayton fussing about trying to keep the crowd back.

      “Don’t tramp all over the place!” he kept saying. “How am I goin’ to examine for footprints of the robber if you tramp and mush all over the place? Keep back!”

      But it was a waste of words to admonish the curiosity seekers who crowded up toward the front door. Then out came Chief Miles Duncan of the Cliffside police. He noticed Bob and his chums in the forefront of the gathering.

      “Hello, Bob!” he greeted pleasantly. “This is one of those things you’ll be interested in – quite a mystery. Come in and take a look.”

      “Now look here – !” began Sam Drayton.

      “It’s all right – Bob can do more with this than you or I could,” said the Cliffside official in a low voice. “I’ll tell you about him later. He’s got the makings of a great detective in him.”

      Bob, much pleased at the invitation, started to push his way through the crowd, envious murmurs accompanying him.

      “Stick by me, fellows,” he told Ned and Bob. “We’ll all go in together.”

      “Say, look here!” objected Sam Drayton as he saw three lads approaching, “Chief Duncan only told Bob Dexter to come in and – ”

      “These are my assistants,” said Bob gravely, but, at the same time winking at Chief Duncan. And Mr. Duncan winked back.

      “That’s right,” he backed up Bob.

      “Oh, well, let ’em in then,” grudgingly conceded Mr. Drayton.

      Bob’s first sight, on entering the main room of the log cabin, was of Hiram Beegle propped up in a chair covered with bed quilts. The old man looked worn and ill – there was a drawn, pinched look on his face, and he was pale.

      “What happened, Mr. Beegle?” asked Bob, noting that the door to the strong room stood ajar, and that the oaken chest, in one corner, was also open.

      Hiram Beegle opened his mouth, but instead of words there came out only a meaningless jumble of sounds.

      “He’s been poisoned,” explained Chief Duncan.

      “Poisoned?” cried Bob.

      “Or something like that,” went on the Cliffside official. “It’s dope, or something that the robber gave him – maybe it’s chloroform, for all I can tell, though it doesn’t smell like that. Anyhow he’s knocked out and can’t tell much that’s happened.”

      “Robbed! Robbed!” gasped Hiram Beegle, bringing out the words with pitiful effort.

      “Yes, he’s been robbed – we’re sure of that,” said Sam Drayton.

      “Box! Box!” and again the old man in the chair brought out the words as if they pained him.

      “That’s right,” assented the Storm Mountain chief. “As near as we can make out he’s been robbed of some sort of a small treasure chest. It was taken from that larger chest in there.”

      “Yes, I know about it,” said Bob quietly.

      “You know about it?” cried both chiefs at once.

      “I mean I saw the small treasure box Mr. Beegle speaks of,” said Bob. “I brought him home yesterday with it. But what I can’t understand is how the robber got in the strong room.”

      “No, and there can’t anybody else either, I reckon,” declared Mr. Drayton. “It’s a big mystery.”

      “Mysteries seem to be about the best little thing Bob runs into lately,” chuckled Harry. “He doesn’t more than get finished with one, than he has another on his hands. Why don’t you open a shop, Bob?”

      “Cut out the comedy,” advised Ned in a low voice to his chum. “Can’t you see that these self-important chiefs don’t like this kind of talk – especially this Storm Mountain fellow?”

      It was evident that this was so, and Harry, with a wink at Ned, subsided.

      “I’d like to hear how it all happened, and I suppose Bob would, too,” remarked Mr. Duncan.

      “I’d like to hear the details,” suggested the young detective.

      “We’ll tell you all we know, Bob,” said Miles Duncan. “You see – ”

      But at that moment a loud and hearty voice from without cried:

      “Where is he! Where’s my old friend Hiram Beegle? Tell him Jolly Bill Hickey is here! Where’s my old friend Hiram Beegle!”

      A man, broadly smiling, his bald head shining in the sun, stumped into the room, one wooden leg making a thumping sound on the floor.

      CHAPTER V

      A MYSTERIOUS ROBBERY

      Jolly Bill Hickey – for so he called himself – stood staring in the middle of the room – staring at the huddled figure of the old man in the chair covered with bed clothes.

      “Why, Hiram – why – what has happened?” cried the man with the wooden leg – an old-fashioned wooden peg, his stump strapped fast to it – and the wooden leg showed signs of wear. “What has happened to my old shipmate Hiram?” demanded Jolly Bill Hickey.

      Again that pitiful effort to talk, but only a meaningless jumble of sounds came forth.

      “Hiram, did they ram you?” demanded he of the wooden leg. “Did they let go a broadside at you? Did they try to sink you?”

      Hiram Beegle nodded his head.

      “Look here!” spluttered Chief Drayton. “You’re not supposed to come in here, you know.”

      “But I am in, you see!” chuckled the wooden-legged man. “I am in and I’m going to stay with my old messmate Hiram. You can’t keep Jolly Bill Hickey out when he wants to come in.”

      That was very evident.

      “Are you a friend of his?” asked Chief Duncan.

      “Am I? I should say I was! Ask him – ask Hiram I But no, what’s the use. He’s been rammed – the enemy has broadsided him and he’s out of action. But I’ll tell you I’m a friend of his, and he’ll tell you so, too, when he gets going again. But what happened here? Tell me – tell Jolly Bill Hickey!” demanded he of the wooden leg.

      “Hiram

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