wing of the house, and the justice
opened the door to what he termed his office.

"Now, what's it all about?" he asked in a sleepy voice.

All hands entered the place, Andy and the mountaineer leading Paul
Barberry, who looked anything but comfortable. The prisoner was
marched up before the justice's desk, and the others ranged themselves
alongside of him, while Justice Harwig, a very pleasant man, made
himself comfortable to listen to what all hands might have to say.

The hearing was a short one, and at its conclusion Paul Barberry was
marched off to the village lock-up, the justice stating that he would
notify the Phillipsburg authorities, so that they could get the
necessary papers and take him away.

Barberry did all he could to beg off, offering at the last moment to
pay a fine equal to the amount of money in his pocket--eighteen
dollars. But neither the justice nor the others would listen to this.
Had he not made the fight, Matt and Andy might have had some pity on
him, but they were but human and could not so easily forget the blows
they had suffered at the hands of the thieves.

It was not deemed worth while to send out any one to look for the two
men who had escaped, and after Barberry was safe in jail the young
auctioneers drove over to the tavern and put up there for the night.
Ramson accompanied them, and before parting with the mountaineer they
paid him the reward that had been promised, for which he was very
thankful.

On the following morning Matt and Andy lost no time in starting back
for Easton, telling Justice Harwig that they would report to the
authorities in Phillipsburg whenever wanted. They found that the
turn-out had suffered no damage by being stolen. The new goods which
had been in the cases had been stored away in some confusion, but Andy
soon straightened this out.

"I tell you we can consider ourselves very lucky to get out of this so
nicely," he said, after he had finished his work and knew all was
right. "As it stands, we will be out hardly a cent."

"Yes, we were lucky," returned Matt. "But we wouldn't have been had we
taken that freight agent's advice and remained on the other side of
the Delaware."

"Well, no doubt he'll be glad to learn that we have recovered the
goods. It saves him something like seventy-eight dollars."

"We will lose the best part of to-day's trade, for we won't be able to
get back much before two or three o'clock."

"Never mind, the city is full of p