“Oh, Neale!” gasped Agnes.
“Why, Aggie, we’d get into hot water if we let this fellow, or any of those other Gypsies, have the bracelet offhand. If this chap wants it, he will have to see Mr. Howbridge.”
“Oh, yes!” murmured the girl with sudden relief in her voice. “We can tell Mr. Howbridge.”
“Guess we’ll have to,” agreed Neale. “We certainly have bit off more than we can chew, Aggie. I’ll say we have. I guess maybe we’d have been wiser if we had told your guardian about the old bracelet before advertising it. And Ruth has nothing on us, at that! She did not tell him.
“We’re likely,” concluded Neale, with a side glance at the swarthy man, “to have a dozen worse than this one come here to bother us. We surely did start something when we had that ad. printed, Aggie.”
CHAPTER XIII—OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY
Costello, the junkman, could not be further ignored, for at this point he began another excitable harangue. The Queen Alma bracelet, “Beeg Jeem,” his own sorrows, and the fact that he saw no reason why Agnes should not immediately give up to him the silver bracelet, were all mixed up together in a clamor that became almost deafening.
“Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?” exclaimed the Corner House girl.
But Neale O’Neil was quite level-headed. Like Agnes, at first he had for a little while been swept off his feet by the swarthy man’s vehemence. He regained his balance now.
“We’re not going to do anything. We won’t even show him the bracelet,” said the boy firmly.