"Yes; we did," Dick informed him. "The police, with their launch
didn't get any trace of Mr. Dodge, did they?"

"No," admitted the news editor. "I've talked with Hemingway within
the last hour. The police will begin dragging the river by daylight."

"They won't find the banker that way," chuckled Dick. "He's alive."

"Have you seen him?" demanded the news editor.

"No; and I'm not going to say too much now, either," returned
Dick, with unusual stubbornness. "But 'The Blade' wants to take
the keynote that Theodore Dodge is alive, and will turn up. I
believe Dave and I are going to make him turn up during the next
spell of daylight."

"We surely are!" laughed Darrin.

Mr. Bradley pressed them close with questions, but neither boy
was inclined to reveal the secret of the trail along the railway
roadbed.

"We're going to keep it all as our own scoop," Dick insisted.
"And please, Mr. Bradley, don't post the police about our idea.
If you do, the police will get the credit. If we keep quiet,
'The Blade' will get all the credit that is coming."

The news editor laid before Dick all the proofs and copy that
had been prepared so far on the absorbing mystery of the night.
Prescott made some newsy additions to the story, and through
it all took the confident keynote that the vanished banker would
soon be heard from in the flesh.

The work done, and Bradley having already seen to the return of
the horse to the livery stable, Dick and Dave went into an unused
room, where they threw themselves down on piles of old papers.
Tired out, they slept without stirring. But they had left a
note for the office boy who was due at six o'clock to sweep out
the business office.

That office boy came in and called the High School pair at a few
minutes after six. Dick's first thought was to instruct the boy
to telephone the Prescott and Darrin homes at seven in the morning,
sending word that the two boys were safe but busy. Then Dick
hastily led the way to a quick-order restaurant near by. Here
the boys got through with breakfast as quickly as they could.
That done, they bought sandwiches, which they put into their
pockets.

As they came out of the eating house the streets were still far
from crowded. Laborers were going to their toil, but it was yet
too early for the business men of the city to be on their way
to offices, or clerks to the stores.

"Now, let's get out of the town in a jiffy," proposed Dick. "We
don'