“Ain't he owin' you anything?”
“No, he is not.”
The young man gave a whistle of relief. “Well, I s'pose he's all right,” he said. “He 'ain't paid the rest of us up yet, but I s'pose it's safe enough.”
A faithful, even an affectionate look came into the other man's face. He remembered his suspicions about the watch, and reasoned from premises. “I have no more doubt of him than I have of myself,” he replied.
“You s'pose the business is goin' on just the same, then?”
“Of course I do,” Allbright replied, almost angrily. And then a man who had just emerged from the street door coming from the elevator accosted him.
“Can you tell me anything about a man by the name of Carroll that's been running a sort of promoting business up in No. 233,” he asked, and his face looked reddened unnaturally. The young man thought he had probably been drinking, but Allbright thought he looked angry. The young man replied before Allbright opened his mouth.
“He's gone on a vacation,” he said.
“Queer time of year for a vacation,” snapped the man, who was long and lean and full of nervous vibrations.
“He was overworked,” said Harrison Day.