Tom was right. He had absolutely no clew by which to guide himself. He would indeed know this man if he came across him, but what was the chance of such a meeting? Surely, very little.
Tom begun to think he had been altogether too sanguine in the matter. He had set about the quest with all a boy’s sanguine ardor, forgetting, or rather leaving out of the account, the difficulties in the way. But unable to tell what to do, he continued to stay on in Mr. Burton’s employment, and in so doing he was unconsciously doing the very best thing he could.
One day, about three months after he had entered upon his place, two customers entered the shop, and expressed a desire to look at some clothing.
The spokesman was a tall, thin man, of perhaps forty. From him Tom’s glance wandered to his companion, and his heart suddenly gave a great bound.
He was rather short, stout, dark-complexioned, with a cast in his left eye, and on the back of his left hand there was a scar.
Every point of his appearance tallied with the description of the absconding clerk.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE ABSCONDING CLERK.
THE TWO customers did not notice Tom’s earnest look, nor his start of surprise, but asked to look at a miner’s outfit. Tom waited upon them, and listened eagerly, hoping to hear something that might confirm his suspicions.