up to t hat very hour--and
twenty cents deducted for the two hours Hiram had had "off."

"But that isn't fair. I'm willing to work to the end of the day. I ought
to get my wages in full for the week, save for the twenty cents," said
Hiram mildly.

To tell the truth, now that he had lost his job--unpleasant as it had
been--Hiram was more than a little troubled. He was indeed about to be
cast adrift.

"You'll git jest that sum, and not a cent more," declared Mr. Dwight,
sharply. "And if you start any trouble here I'll call in the officer on
the beat--yes, I will! I don't know but I ought to deduct the cost of
Dan, Junior's, spoiled suit, too. He says you an' he was skylarkin' on
Sunday and that's how he fell into the water."

Hiram had no answer to make to this. What was the use? He took the
money, slipped it into his pocket, and went out.

He did not linger around the Emporium. Nor was he scarcely out of sight
when a man driving a span of handsome bay horses halted his team before
the store, jumped out, and went in.

"Are you the proprietor of Dwight's Emporium?" asked the man in the
gray coat and hat, in his hearty tones. "You are? Glad to meet you! I'm
looking for a young man who works for you."

"Who's that? What do you want of him?" asked Dan, Senior, doubtfully,
and rubbing his hand, for the stranger's grip had been as hearty as his
voice.

The other laughed in his jovial way. "Why, to tell the truth, I don't
know his name. I didn't ask him. He's not much more than a boy--a sturdy
youngster with a quick way with him. He did me a service the other
evening and I wanted to see him."

"There ain't any boy working here," snapped Mr. Dwight. "Them's all
the clerks I got behind the counter--and there ain't one of 'em under
thirty, I'll be bound."

"That's so," admitted the stranger. "And although it was so dark I could
not see that fellow's face, and I didn't ask his name, I am sure he was
young."

"I jest discharged the only boy I had--and scamp enough he was," snarled
Mr. Dwight. "If you were looking for him, you'd have been sorry to find
him. I didn't know but I'd have to send for a policeman to git him off
the premises."

"What--what?"

"That's what I tell you. He was a bad egg. Mebbe he's the boy you
want--but you won't get no good of him when you find him. And I've no
idea where he's to be found now," and the old man turned his back on the
man in the gray coat and went into his office.

The stran