d silence fell between
them.

"I suppose we may as well hail another bus and get back to the store,"
the clock repairer at length suggested. "There's no good hanging round
here."

Although he did not actually say in so many words that they had already
wasted two fares, Christopher, well aware of his Scotch thrift, felt his
manner implied it.

They did not say much during the ride down town. McPhearson was a bit
ruffled and annoyed, and Christopher crestfallen and mortified. He was
thinking, too, that he would have to confess to his father what he had
so impulsively done, and receive from him more jeers and ridicule linked
with probable admonitions to greater deliberation and caution in future.
He hated to be preached at. Therefore he was entirely unprepared for the
ovation that greeted his return to the shop.

Hollings was near the door when he went in and had evidently been
waiting for him.

"Birdie is securely in his cage!" announced he, dropping his voice so
that the thrilling tidings might not be overheard by customers close at
hand.

"What?" gasped Christopher.

"Yes, he's bagged for fair! Your father is delighted. They're all
upstairs waiting for you--Corrigan, Davis, and all. We're to go down to
headquarters and identify the chap."

"Then it really _was_ Stuart!"

"Sure thing!" Hollings was actually trembling with joy. "Oh, I hope
they'll find those diamonds on him! At least, they'll probably be able
to make him tell where they are. If we can only get that ring back, I
shall die happy."

"So you were right after all, Christopher," McPhearson put in.

"Apparently!"

The cry, _"I told you so!"_ rose like a wave to the lad's lips and then
as speedily receded. Why should he feel triumphant? Mistakes are always
possible, and he might have been mistaken. Fortunately this time he had
not been, that was all.

"I'm glad!" the clockmaker declared.

"So am I!" replied the boy modestly.

No further comment was made except as they went up in the elevator, the
old man added:

"It's never amiss to have your eyes about you, son. The majority of
folks might as well have two glass beads in their heads, so little do
they really observe of what they see. To have your eyes open and your
mouth shut isn't a bad notion."

It was like McPhearson to turn his praise into good council. He never
flattered. Perhaps, too, it was just as well, for Christopher received
that noon all the adulation that was good for him.