“Not the slightest. I notified the police and sent out several detectives, but could learn nothing. The detectives told me that the jewelry man was little better than a thief, and always covered his tracks when he left a city, so that his victims could not trace him up.”
“That’s most likely true. But I trust you do not take my partner and me for such fellows,” added Matt honestly.
“No; you look like a young gentleman, and the other young man was one, too, I feel sure.”
“We try to do things on the square. We never willfully misrepresent what we sell—as many do.”
“That is right, and if you keep on that way you will be bound to prosper. No one ever yet gained much by resorting to trickery in trying to get along.”
Mrs. Inwold talked to Matt for quite awhile after this, and promised to come down to the store and buy several other articles of which she thought she stood in need. It was nearly five o’clock when the boy left the mansion.
“A very nice lady,” thought Matt, as he hurried back to the auction store. “I hope I meet her son Tom some day. I’ll tell him how she feels about his going away, and advise him to return home without delay. My gracious! you wouldn’t catch me leaving a home like that in order to put up with the hardships of the road!”