t you and your mother had
hard work to get along."

"Business is looking up."

Edgar got out at Twenty-Third Street. Mark kept on till he reached
Forty-Seventh Street. He walked toward Seventh Avenue, and finally stood
in front of the house in which the customer for the diamond rings was
staying. It was a plain three-story residence with nothing peculiar
about it. Mark rang the bell, little suspecting what was in store for
him.

A boy of about seventeen, shabbily dressed, answered the bell.

"Is Mrs. Montgomery at home?" asked Mark, referring to a card.

"I guess so," answered the boy.

"I should like to see her."

"All right! I'll go up and ask."

The boy left Mark standing in the doorway, and went up-stairs.

He returned in a very short time.

"You're to come up," he said.

Mark followed him up the staircase and into a back room. It was scantily
furnished. There was a lounge on one side of the room, and a cabinet bed
on the other. These, with three chairs and a bureau, constituted the
furniture.

"Just step in here," said the boy, "and I'll call Mrs. Montgomery."

Mark took a seat on the sofa and awaited the arrival of the lady.

He did not have long to wait. The door opened, but the lady he expected
did not appear. Instead, a young man entered whom Mark instantly
recognized as the person who had left the Fifth Avenue stage under
suspicious circumstances on the day when the old lady was robbed of her
pocketbook.

Mark started and wondered if the recognition was mutual. It did not
appear to be.

"You're the jeweler's boy, I believe?" said the newcomer languidly.

"I came from Henry Swan."

"Exactly, and you have brought two diamond rings with you?"

"Yes."

"All right! You can show them to me."

Mark's suspicions were aroused and he felt that he had need of all his
shrewdness. He was very glad now that the diamonds were paste and the
rings of little value.

"Excuse me," he said, "but I was told to deliver the rings to Mrs.
Philip Montgomery."

"Yes, that's all right. Mrs. Montgomery is my aunt."

"I should like to see her," persisted Mark.

"Come, boy, you're too fresh. It'll be all the same if you hand the
rings to me."

"I don't think so. Isn't Mrs. Montgomery at home?"

"Yes, but she has a severe headache and cannot see you at present."

"Then perhaps I had better call again."

"No you don't. I am a gentleman and won't permit you to insult me."

"What do you want to do?"

"