“The police were notified and asked if they had seen any suspicious characters around the building. The Chief instructed all the patrolmen in town to bring in any suspicious characters.
“Finally late last night,” continued Robb, “the policeman down at the station reported that shortly after one o’clock yesterday a young fellow had asked to be directed to a pawnshop. He was very much excited and in a hurry. Might have been a student, but he thought he was a stranger because most students would know where the pawnshop was, even if they didn’t have any business there.
“So they have this cop stationed down by the entrance and he is looking at the students as they go in thinking he can identify the fellow if he should happen to be a student.”
“Seems silly to me,” remarked Hans, “that they should think any student of Lowell who would do a trick like that would be so bone-headed as to try to pawn it in this town. I doubt if any pawnbroker in the country would take a thing like that. It would be recognized immediately.”
“He could take out the diamonds and melt it up,” said Talkington, who had joined in the discussion.
Hal’s face was white. He knew they were looking for him, thinking that he was the guilty party! What should he do? He could account for all of his time. He would tell them the exact facts, every detail, even his visit to the pawnshop in Boston to find out what his watch was worth. Hans was with him all the time, excepting in the pawnshop, and so was Delvin most of the time. The pawnbroker would no doubt testify for him that he simply made an inquiry there and pawned nothing.
After breakfast he said to Hagner with as much self-control as he could muster, “Hans, I’m the fellow they are after. When I was crazy to get away yesterday for home, and was bent on pawning my watch, I went up to that policeman at the station and asked him where I could find a pawnshop.”
“Gee!” said Hans, “that looks bad, doesn’t it? Yes! it looks bad, but only looks. You’re all right. Wasn’t the pawnshop closed when you got there? Isn’t it the only pawnshop in town? They can find out that it was closed, can’t they? Wasn’t I with you all the time in Boston and on the way there and back? And wasn’t Delvin with us, too?”
“All but during my visit to the shop,” said Hal, “when I learned the value of my watch.”
“Well,” returned Hans, “the pawnbroker will know you if it comes to that, and can testify that you didn’t leave anything there.”