With caution Tom stepped out on the roof. A number of chimneys were not far off, and he wondered if Merrick was concealed behind them.
"I wish I had a club or something," he thought. "I'd have a tough time of it up here, if it came to a hand-to-hand struggle."
With eyes on the alert, Tom made his way to one chimney and then another. The swindler was not there, nor was he on the adjoining roof. Then the youth got down on his hands and knees and looked over the edge of the tenement, on the alleyway side. Here was an iron fire escape, running from the fourth story to the second. On the fire escape he saw Merrick, descending to the bottom with all possible rapidity.
Evidently the swindler had dropped from the roof to the upper landing of the fire escape. He was now almost to the bottom.
"Stop!" cried Tom, but he knew the command was a useless one. At the sound of his voice Merrick looked up and muttered something the boy could not catch. Then he swung himself from the bottom landing of the fire escape and dropped to the ground.
"If he can get down that way, so can I," thought Tom, and in another moment he was descending the escape in the same fashion as the swindler had done. As he reached the second landing of the escape he saw Merrick turn the corner of the alleyway and disappear on the street beyond.
When Tom came out on the street he almost ran into the arms of two burly men who had come out of the tenement. Both caught him by the arms.
"What does this mean, young fellow?" asked one, savagely. "Doing the sneak-thief act?"
"I am after a thief," was the answer. "Did you see a man running away?"
"No, and we don't think there was a man," answered one of the tenement dwellers.
"Well, there was a man," said Tom. "Come, if you will help me catch him I will reward you well."
"Some bonds worth ten thousand dollars--they belonged to my uncle," explained Tom, hastily.
The promise of a reward made the men attentive and they soon agreed to assist Tom as much as possible. Then Dick and Sam came in sight, and had to be told of what had happened.
The two men knew the tenement and factory district well, and they led in a hunt lasting over half an hour, and a policeman was likewise called into service.