It was not long before the houses of High Bridge appeared in sight. At
the first place the young auctioneer asked for directions to the
hotel, and here he had the wagon and horse safely stabled, and then
went to the room which had been assigned to him to change every
article of clothing he wore.

He had ordered a hot meal to be served, and when he came down he found
the table spread for him.

"Got caught in the shower, eh?" questioned the hotel-keeper, as Matt
sat down.

"Yes, indeed," returned the boy, and he related the particulars of his
adventures while eating, not forgetting to mention the three tramps.

"Those three rascals have been bothering folks around here for quite a
bit," remarked the hotel-keeper after he had finished. "The constable
is after 'em now, but I don't think he'll catch 'em, for they slide
around from place to place. You can bet on it that they are miles away
from that shanty by this time."

"Well, I trust that I never fall in with them again," returned Matt
with a slight shudder.

"Going to hold an auction?" went on the hotel-keeper curiously.

"That's what I expect to do. I would like to find some good spot.
Where would be the best place for me to locate, do you think?"

The hotel-keeper thought for a moment.

"Well, most of the folks come around here and over across the way to
the general stores. But I reckon the store-keepers won't like you
around much."

"They never do--but I can't help that. I've got to make a living as
well as they."

"That's true. Tell you what you might do. There's the old paint-shop
next door. You can use that for an auction place if you are a mind to
be liberal for the use of it," said the hotel-keeper.

As soon as he had finished Matt went out and inspected the old
paint-shop. He found it would do very well for his purpose, and on
returning offered the hotel-keeper a good pocket-knife for its use for
the following day. This offer was at once accepted, and Matt set to
work without delay to get the place into shape.

By nightfall he was ready for business. In the meantime, he had sent a
couple of small boys around to all the houses in the neighborhood to
notify the folks of the sale, and as a consequence, by eight o'clock
he had the shop quite comfortably filled.

Without waiting to see if Andy might return on the late evening
train, Matt started up business, and inside of half an hour had
matters in full swing. He opened up with a lot of goods which