For the time being his thoughts were in a whirl, for like a flash it had come to him that the pin he had seen being handled by Mendez and Boswell was Ruth’s missing brooch.
“I couldn’t get close enough for a good look, but it sure was an old-fashioned pin, from their talk, and it looked like the one I’ve seen Ruth wear. The one with the secret spring.”
He walked on a little farther.
“Now what’s to be done?” he asked himself. “I guess I’ll sit down and think this thing out.”
Rapidly Tom went over in his mind what he had seen and heard.
“This seems to let Boswell out of it,” he murmured. “And I’m glad of it—for the honor of Randall,” and Tom thought of the events that had taken place some time ago, when the honor of Randall seemed to be threatened, events which I have narrated in the book of that title.
“If Boswell bought the pin of Mendez, then it must be the Mexican who is the man we’re after,” Tom went on. “He deals in jewelry, though most of it is that filigree silver stuff that I don’t fancy. And Boswell wants Mendez to get him another old-fashioned pin like the one he already has. I wonder who for?”
But Tom did not wonder long on this point.
“The insolent puppy!” he exclaimed, clenching his fists. “If he tries to give Ruth a pin I’ll——”