“That I know absolutely nothing about it.”
“Oh, that was all, was it?” returned Simpson, relieved, and he walked away.
Tom looked after him, puzzled by his manner.
CHAPTER X.
IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT.
ON HIS way back from the shop Tom met another member of John Simpson’s family.
It was Rupert.
Rupert was carefully dressed, and looked, as the saying is, as if he had just come out of a bandbox. He was rather fond of dress. Besides it helped to distinguish him from the other boys in the village. Harry Julian was the only one who had the means to dress as well, and he was content with dressing neatly.
Generally Rupert would have passed Tom with a cool nod, if indeed he had deigned to notice him at all, but now his curiosity was excited by seeing him in the street at an hour when he was usually at work.
“Why are you not at work?” asked Rupert, pausing in his walk.