said, an egg would hardly have broken had it come between. And there,
not more than twenty feet away, the man, dressed in a blue uniform and
wearing a silver shield with the words "Chief of Police" engraved upon
it, was soothing his horse, which had apparently been badly frightened
by the swooping down of what seemed to be a great roc, or some other
species of now extinct gigantic kings of the air.

"What's up, Chief?" asked Frank, as soon as they had reached the road
together.

"Then you haven't heard the terrible news; they told me you left home to
come up here about daybreak; and we didn't find it out until an hour
ago. The bank in Bloomsbury was broken open last night, the safe rifled,
and the thieves have disappeared in the queerest way ever heard of, for
they left no trace behind. And when I saw you boys aloft, I was in hopes
you might have seen something of the bank looters."




CHAPTER V


THE EXCITEMENT GROWS

"Well, what d'ye think of that for news, eh, Frank?" burst out Andy, in
his usual impetuous way, after the Bloomsbury Chief of Police had made
this startling announcement.

Frank was as a rule much cooler than his cousin. He had undoubtedly been