As he did so, the conductor said: “There was such a man on the train. He got off at the last station.”
“I don't know anything about that,” said the claimant; “but I'll trouble you, young man, for that watch.”
“Will you return me the twenty dollars I gave for it?” asked Walter.
“Of course not. I don't propose to buy back my own watch.”
An elderly gentleman who sat just behind Walter spoke up here.
“It is rather hard on the boy,” he said. “I can confirm his story about the purchase of the watch. I heard the bargaining and saw the purchase-money paid.”
“That makes no difference to me,” said the claimant. “I've identified the watch and I want it.”
Walter removed it from his chain and was about to hand it to the claimant, when a quiet-looking man, dressed in a drab suit, rose from a seat farther down the car and came forward. He was a small man, not over five feet five inches in height, and he would not have weighed over one hundred and twenty pounds, but there was a look of authority on his face and an accent of command in his voice.
“You needn't give up the watch, my boy,” he said.
Walter drew back his hand and turned round in surprise. The claimant uttered an angry exclamation, and said testily: “By what right do you interfere?”