Frank looked up in surprise.
"I don't see as that has anything to do with it," he replied stiffly.
"It has a good deal to do with it," said the man. "That is not the sort of a watch a boy your age carries. Not on your life it isn't! Now where did you get that watch? Did you steal it? That is the question. Are you selling it for someone else? That's what I want to know. We are licensed dealers here, and we got to be pertected. Come across, young feller, come across! What's your name?"
"Bill Sherman," said Frank, and was sorry as soon as he had said it. But he did not dare retract his words.
"So far, so good!" said the man to whom the name meant nothing. "Now, Bill Sherman, where did you get this watch?"
"It is mine," said Frank, "and I am not selling it; I want to pawn it."
"If Bill Sherman can afford to own a watch like that, why then should he pawn it? Looks like he ought to have plenty of money."
"I do mostly," said Frank, red and fidgeting. "But I am short just at present, and that is my own watch that my grandfather willed to me so I thought I would pawn it for awhile."
"I don't know," said the man. "I got boys of my own. But if I don't take it you will go somewhere else. So what's the difference? What do you expect to get for it?"
"Grandfather paid nearly a thousand dollars for it!" said Frank. "Would you think six hundred dollars about right?"