“I did not.”

“They robbed me and ran away.”

“Saints preserve us!  Robbed ye?  Of phat?”

“Of everything I had.  Sure you didn’t see ’em?”

“Not since this marnin’.”

“Well, they must have just gone out,” said Dick, and ran down the stairs and to the office.  Here he found the place deserted, the clerk having gone down to the dining room for his supper, and nobody else being on duty.  The clerk listened to his story with small interest and shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t see what I can do,” he said.  “We ain’t responsible for our guests.  You had better go and see the police.  I hope you catch them, for such rascals give hotels bad reputations.”

“Do you know the men at all?”

“No, never set eyes on ’em until a couple of days ago.  Then they came in, hired that room, and came and went to suit themselves.  One was named Brown and the other Smith—­at least that’s the names on the register.”

“Those were fake names.  Then you won’t help me to catch them?”

“I don’t see what I can do,” answered the clerk, calmly.  “We are not to blame for this, you can see that for yourself.”

Dick could see, and after a few words more, he left the hotel, feeling very depressed in spirits.  He spent an hour in looking up and down the Bowery for Cuffer and Shelley, but without success.  Then, as it was getting late, he returned to the hotel at which he and the rest of his family were putting up.

CHAPTER XI

ABOARD THE STEAM YACHT

Mr Rover, as well as Tom and Sam, had come in, and all were anxious to hear what Dick might have to report.  They were filled with amazement at the story of the robbery.

“I thought I’d wait about telling the police until I had heard what you had to say,” said Dick, to his father.

“I am afraid in a big city like New York it won’t do much good to tell the police,” answered Anderson Rover.  “However, we can report it to morrow.  But I think Cuffer and Shelley will keep in the shade until they see Sid Merrick and have a chance to get away,” and in this surmise Mr. Rover was correct.  The matter was reported to the police, and that was the end of it, so far as the authorities went, for they failed to apprehend the evildoers.

Mr. Rover was much worried when he learned that Merrick had fallen in with a captain of a tramp vessel who was ready to go on a hunt for the treasure.  And he was still more worried when Dick told him of the letters which had been abstracted from his coat pocket by the thieves.  Among them was one from Mrs. Stanhope mentioning the treasure hunt and how she would be on hand at Philadelphia to board the steam yacht with Dora and the Lanings.

“If Cuffer and Shelley turn that letter over to Merrick it will give him some idea of our proposed trip,” said Mr. Rover, “and more than likely he will strain every nerve to get ahead of us.”