The boys looked at each other in amazement.  Belright Fogg!  The lawyer who had tried to outwit them in their claim against the railroad company because of the smashed Dartaway!  Was that fellow mixed up in this game also?  It looked like it.

CHAPTER XXIV

 From A garret window

“This is getting interesting!” whispered Tom.

“I should say so,” murmured Dick.

“That must have been what was bringing Belright Fogg down to New York City.”

“It looks like it.”

“Well, if he is mixed up in this he can get pinched with the rest of the rascals.”

“Right you are.”

After that the boys listened to more of the talk between the brokers and Josiah Crabtree.  From what was said it was easy to guess that the plotters expected to make quite a large sum of money out of their evil doings.

“But you have got to get Rover’s signatures to those papers,” said Jesse Pelter.

“We’ll do it!” cried Josiah Crabtree.  “Even if we have to starve him into it.”

“I hope those boys didn’t come after the schooner,” muttered Japson.

“I reckon Captain Rodney will know how to throw ’em off the scent,” returned Crabtree.

“We were lucky to find that automobile at the tavern,” went on Pelter.

Some more talk followed and then Japson exclaimed: 

“Why can’t we make Rover sign those papers now?  Maybe we can scare him into it.”

“We might try,” answered his partner, slowly.

The men arose and Japson lit a lantern, for he knew it was dark in the garret.  Then, one behind the other, they filed out into the hallway and went upstairs.

“They are going to find out something pretty soon!” chuckled Tom.

“Come on, let us follow ’em, Tom,” answered his brother.  “I’ve got a new idea.”

“What is it?”

“Perhaps we can lock ’em in that garret until help arrives.”

“Just the cheese, Dick!  I remember there was a lock on the door,—­ and maybe we can fasten it in some other way, too—­ so they can’t break out.”

“They can’t get out by the windows—­ they are too high from the ground.”

By this time the three men were mounting the garret stairs.  They had to pass around a pile of furniture to get to where Anderson Rover had been kept a prisoner.

“Quick now!” cried Dick, as the men disappeared from view.  He closed the garret door and turned the key in the lock.  “Get a chair or two, Tom, so we can wedge the door fast.”

Tom understood, and ran into a nearby room, to bring out a square table.  The stairway to the garret ran from a right angle of the wall, so that the table could be stood up against the door, with the bottom of the four legs against the wall opposite.  Some books chanced to be handy, and the lads were able to place these against the wall under the feet of the table legs, thus wedging the door fast.