“I wish you would give me all the particulars,” went on Dick.

“Here comes the manager,—­ he can tell you more than I can,” replied the clerk, and he nodded in the direction of a tall, heavy-set individual who was approaching.

“So you are Mr. Rover’s sons, eh?” said Mr. Garley, as he shook hands.  “I am sorry for you, indeed I am.  This is certainly a puzzle.  Come in here and I will tell you all I know,” and he led the way to a small reception parlor that was, just then, unoccupied.  He drew two chairs up to a small sofa, so that all might sit close together.

“I don’t suppose any word came from the farm for us?” suggested Sam, as he was about to sit down.

“If anything came in the name of Rover I’d know about it,” returned the hotel manager.  “I am very much interested in this case.”

“Have you spoken to the police about it?” asked Tom.

“Not yet.  I thought that perhaps you would not like it.  Sometimes, you know, men go away and leave no word, and, later on, they come back, and they don’t want anything said about it.  So we have to be careful.”

“What have you got to tell us?” asked Dick.

“It isn’t very much.  In the first place, though, I don’t think your father was in the best of health.  I noticed that, and so did one of my clerks and one of the elevator men.”

“Did he have an attack while he was here?” cried Sam.

“I don’t know about that.  But we all noticed that he was feeble at times—­ and that he seemed to be very much worried over something.  He was continually getting his notebook out and doing some writing or figuring, and then he would shake his head, as if it didn’t please him at all.”

“Yes, he was worried over some business matters,” answered Dick.  “But that wasn’t bad enough to make him go off like this and leave no word.  When was he last seen?”

“In the morning, about ten o’clock.  He came down in one of the elevators with a small package in his hand—­ a package, so the elevator man said, that looked like some legal documents.  He seemed to be very much disturbed, and the man said he talked to himself.  He hurried out of the side door of the hotel, but one of the doormen saw him go to the corner and turn down Broadway—­ and that was the last seen of him, so far as we knew.”

“And what of the things in his room?” questioned Dick.

“Outside of the usual cleaning up, I have had everything left as it was,” answered the hotel manager.  “You may go up there, if you wish.”

“We will,—­ and we’ll most likely want rooms, too.”

“The room next to his is vacant, you can have that if you wish.”

“All right, we’ll take it,” returned Tom.  “Do they connect?”

“Yes.  I’ll have the hallman unlock the connecting door for you.”

They were soon in an elevator, a boy bringing up their baggage.  They passed to the fourth floor of the hotel and to the rear.