“If I only could find father,” he sighed to himself as he turned back to the store. “Something in my heart tells me that he is not dead, and yet, if this is so, where can he be?”
On arriving at the store he found Andy already busy with a crowd which had begun to collect the moment that the red flag was hung out. Matt had to begin work at once, and this was a good thing for the boy, for it kept him from brooding over his parent’s possible fate and thus growing melancholy.
“If I am any kind of a judge, we are going to do the best business yet at this city,” said Andy, as there came a little lull in trade. “It started off briskly, and it has kept on steadily ever since.”
“Well, that just suits me,” laughed Matt. “To my way of thinking we cannot do too much business.”
During the next day Matt noticed two sharp-eyed men hanging around the place a good deal. 256 At first he paid no attention to them, but at last pointed them out to Andy.
“Yes, I noticed them myself,” returned the senior partner. “They do not look as if they wanted to buy, but just as if they were spying.”
“Supposing I call them in and ask them to buy?” suggested Matt, for both of the men were at that moment gazing in the window at the articles displayed there.
“Certainly, you can do that if you want to,” returned Andy.
So Matt walked from behind the counter toward the door, but before he could reach it one of the men saw him and spoke to his companion, and both hurried up the street and around the nearest corner.
“Humph! that’s queer, to say the least,” said the young auctioneer, and Andy agreed with him.