He gradually extended his knowledge to watches, and subsequently to jewelry, but the unset diamond line was a special branch that required an expert to deal with, and it was attended to by one clerk only. This man was the head of the jewelry department. His pay was much higher than that of the other clerks, but then his responsibilities, knowledge and experience were greater than theirs. The days passed into weeks, and the weeks resolved themselves into months, and Easter week came around, bringing its expected invitation to Dick to spend the week-end with the Masons. He and Madge corresponded regularly now, and the latest piece of news he got from her was that she was slated for Vassar College at the beginning of the fall term. The four-year course would carry her into her twentieth year. Dick would be twenty-two then, if he lived, and he wondered if they would still think as much of each other as they did now.
So he went down to Carlin early on Saturday afternoon and was met by the auto, with Madge in it, and whirled over the road to the house. They were just turning in at the gate when a seedy, hard-featured man came along. He scowled when his eyes rested on Dick's face, and then the boy recognized him as Samuel Parker, one of the two burglars who had robbed the Mason house. His time, reduced by commutation for good behavior, had just expired at the State prison, and he had come back to his old stamping-grounds, to find things about as he had left them.
His wife had managed to get along through the sympathy of neighbors who had given her various kinds of employment, and many of the farmers occasionally chipped in a dollar apiece to help her out when she was hard pressed. She kept a cow, chickens, and raised her own vegetables, so she did not fare so badly. Now that her husband had returned, the question arose as to whether he would be able to get any employment on the farm where he had picked up odd jobs before he got into trouble. Dick was surprised to see him at liberty, not knowing that his sentence had expired, and he called Madge's attention to him.
"Yes, he's been around for about a week," she said. "Father said his time was up."
"I see. He got a commutation of twenty months. Well, he isn't as tough a nut as his companion, who enticed him into the job. That chap has three years and a half more to serve, deducting his commutation. Then he will be arrested as soon as he comes out and taken to New York to answer to the indictment the district attorney secured against him for assaulting me in the sample room of our store and stealing $100 worth of our stock. He'll get another five years at least for that, at Sing Sing. It will simply be a change of prisons for him."
Dick inquired if the gypsies had taken their departure, and Madge said she believed they had.
"This is the time that Miriam, the head of the tribe, said I was going to come into a fortune that she alleged I already possessed, but I don't see any signs of the matter coming to pass yet," he said.
"I wonder what she meant by saying that you possessed it. She must have referred to that piece of land father gave you."
"That isn't money."
"You could realize money on it."