“No, I must say I didn’t see your face,” said the constable, who, although a friend of the store-keeper, was yet disposed to be fair and square.
“You probably saw a man, and he ran in this direction,” went on Matt.
“We saw you,” said Marvelling doggedly. “March him back to the store, Jackson, and we’ll make him confess where he has placed the stolen stuff. He doesn’t seem to have it with him.”
“If you wish to get back your goods you had better listen to what I have to say,” returned Matt, trying to keep down his rising temper. “I did not enter your store, but perhaps I can put you on the track of the party who did.”
“Oh, pshaw! that’s all talk!” snarled Isaac Marvelling. “March him back, Jackson.”
“It won’t do any harm to listen to his story,” said the constable meekly. “I reckon you want to get the goods back more than anything.”
“Of course! of course!” responded the store-keeper 160 eagerly. “I can’t afford to lose forty-five dollars’ worth of stuff at once.”
“You say you didn’t do the job, and that you think you can put us on the right track?”
“I think I can do something for you,” returned Matt.
And in a few brief words he told how he happened to be at the bridge and what he had seen. The constable listened with deep interest, but Isaac Marvelling pooh-poohed the whole story.