place
to place, do you not?"

"Yes, madam; we shall remain here but a few days."

"Then, perhaps, in your travels you may run across Tom. If you do I
wish you would tell him to send word home. He ought to come home of
himself, but I suppose he won't do that, he is so headstrong."

"I should think he would prefer a good home to traveling around with a
cheap jewelry man," was Matt's comment, as he looked around at the
comfortable house Mrs. Inwold occupied. "I know I would."

"Boys do not always know what is best for them," sighed the lady. "Tom
generally had his own way, and that made him headstrong. He is my only
son, and as his father is away most of the time, I suppose I treated
him more indulgently than was good for him."

"You have no idea where he and the jewelry man went?"

"Not the slightest. I notified the police and sent out several
detectives, but could learn nothing. The detectives told me that the
jewelry man was little better than a thief, and always covered his
tracks when he left a city, so that his victims could not trace him
up."

"That's most likely true. But I trust you do not take my partner and
me for such fellows," added Matt honestly.

"No; you look like a young gentleman, and the other young man was one,
too, I feel sure."

"We try to do things on the square. We never willfully misrepresent
what we sell--as many do."

"That is right, and if you keep on that way you will be bound to
prosper. No one ever yet gained much by resorting to trickery in
trying to get along."

Mrs. Inwold talked to Matt for quite awhile after this, and promised
to come down to the store and buy several other articles of which she
thought she stood in need. It was nearly five o'clock when the boy
left the mansion.

"A very nice lady," thought Matt, as he hurried back to the auction
store. "I hope I meet her son Tom some day. I'll tell him how she
feels about his going away, and advise him to return home without
delay. My gracious! you wouldn't catch me leaving a home like that in
order to put up with the hardships of the road!"

CHAPTER XVII.

THE STORM.

That evening Matt and Andy were kept busy until nearly eleven o'clock
selling goods to people that came from the circus. They put up nearly
every kind of article on their shelves, and only about half the stock
remained unsold when they finally closed and locked the doors.

"That circus was a windfall to us!" exclaimed Andy. "We would not have