“I guess you had the parlor suit,” said the woman still laughing at the boys before her. “You look as if you belong to John Jacob Astor’s family. It may be that you look better than he did when he used to come there, but I guess you wouldn’t pass for much more.”
For the first time the boys were aware that the strange garb in which they were clad certainly did not imply that they had been guests at any prominent summer hotel. Both suits were ill-fitting and worn, and if either had been plunged in soap and water within a year there was nothing in the garments to imply such action.
For a moment Fred was nonplussed and then hastily thrusting his hand into his pocket he drew forth his watch.
“How will that do?” he said as he placed the gold watch on the desk. It was a beautiful little time-piece, a present he had received on his sixteenth birthday from his father. “You’ll take that as security, I guess,” he said lightly, “and when we get back to Mackinac Island we’ll send you the money or come with it and get the watch.”
Picking up the time-piece the woman gazed curiously at it and then again looking sharply at the boys she said, “Where did you get that?”
“It was a present,” said Fred.
“Who gave it to you?”
“My father.”
“Does he live on Fifth Avenue, New York?”
“He does not,” said Fred slowly.