“Did your daughter say how the man was dressed?” asked Sam.

“Sure!  She said he had on a dark suit of clothes and a dark, soft hat.  That’s all she knew.”

“Was he a big man?”

“Oh, she said he was about middlin’ big.”

This was all the old janitor could tell, and a little later he brought in both his wife and his daughter to be interviewed.  The girl was almost scared to death, and could add nothing to what her father had already told.

“Well, it’s a clew, even if it is a slight one,” was Tom’s comment.  “Dick, I guess the best thing you can do is to call up police headquarters.”

“I’ll do it.  But please remember one thing,” went on the oldest Rover boy, turning to the janitor and his family and also the office boy.  “We want to keep this as quiet as possible for the present, so please don’t say anything about it.”  And all of them promised to keep silent.

It did not take long for Dick to get into communication with the authorities, and after a short talk over the telephone, he was told that a couple of detectives would be sent down to his once without delay.

“Have you told Mr. Powell?” questioned Tom, suddenly.

“No, but I will call him up now,” answered his older brother.

Of course the lawyer was astonished at the news, and asked what steps had been taken to apprehend the thief.  When told that the authorities had been asked to take charge of the case, he wanted to know if he could be of any assistance.

“I don’t see how you can help us, Mr. Powell,” answered Dick, over the wire.  “I suppose we will have to put the whole matter in the hands of the police.”

“Well, if I can do anything at all, let me know,” answered Songbird’s uncle.  “I am rather busy now, but as soon as I am at leisure, I will call and talk the matter over with you.”

Inside of half an hour the two detectives from headquarters arrived.  They were bright, sharp-eyed individuals, and they got down to business without delay.  They asked Dick innumerable questions, and looked carefully at the safe, trying the combination several times, and then inspected the offices and the hallway.  After that they subjected Kittie Donovan to a close examination, getting the girl to tell everything she could possibly think of regarding the strange man she had seen on the evening when the robbery had occurred.

“I think I know who did this job,” said one of the detectives to the other.

“Looks like the work of one of three men to me,” returned the other sleuth.  “Baldy Jackson, Slim Martin, or Hank the Bluffer.”

“You may be right, Joe, but I think it was Hank.  If I’ve got the dope right, those other two fellows you mention are not near New York just now.”

“Well, if Baldy and Slim can prove that they weren’t around New York at the time, then I’ll agree with you that it was Hank who lifted that box,” returned the other detective.