“What will you do?”
“Never mind; you’ll see fast enough.”
“You cannot bully me. Now that you have taken the trouble to come in here, let me tell you something. You just cast several reflections upon our characters. That has got to be stopped.”
“Humph! Why, you are but a boy and dare talk to me.”
“Never mind, he knows what he is saying,” put in Andy. “We are not to be mistreated by rivals or by any one else.”
“Don’t talk to me!” snapped Gissem, and unable to keep up the talk with credit to himself, he fled from the store.
“I don’t think he will dare to bother us again,” said Andy. “He is too much afraid to have his past record raked up.”
Andy went off to dinner, leaving Matt in sole 267 charge. The snow had cleared away, but it was still cold, and to keep himself warm, Matt went to the rear of the establishment and got his overcoat. He was just putting on the garment when a noise near the show-window attracted his attention. He ran forward, and saw that a thin stream of water was coming down through the boards of the ceiling. The water was splashing on some of the stock, and unless it was speedily checked it would do a good bit of damage.
Matt knew that the upper part of the building was not occupied. In the rear of the store was a door leading to the back hallway, and through this he ran and started to go upstairs.
As he did so, somebody started to come down. It was the boy who worked for the rival auctioneers.