“I’ve read about burglars,” thought Victor, as he called to mind sundry dime novels that he had perused in his boarding-school days, “but I never expected to meet one, or to be suspected of being his accomplice.”
Before Mrs. Ferguson reached the store she had already read in great excitement an account of how her place had been entered, and gave Victor high praise for his success in causing the arrest of the burglar.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
A STRANGE MEETING.
Noel Brooke and Gerald remained at the Lindell Hotel beyond the time originally fixed, as the former found an English friend established in a prosperous business on Olive Street. Gilbert Sandford was a man of forty-five, a pleasant, genial, man, who lived in a fine house in the upper portion of the city. He had a wife and three attractive children.
“Come and take dinner with me next Sunday, Noel,” he said in a hospitable manner.
“I shall be glad to do so if you will let me bring my friend also.”
“By all means! Any friend of yours is welcome. Did he accompany you from England?”
“No. It is a young American—a boy of sixteen—whom I met in Colorado. We have been together three or four months now, and I have become very much attached to him.”