Part 35 (1/2)
”Much better, thank you. A turn in the air always relieves her, and she is quite herself again. I have returned because it is necessary for me to leave the city by the evening train, and my time is, therefore, short. Will you be kind enough to show the ring to your employer, and ask him if he will purchase?”
The clerk returned, and said that the firm would pay two hundred and fifty dollars, but must be a.s.sured of his right to dispose of it.
”Did you mention my name?” asked the adventurer.
”I mentioned that you were a clergyman. I could not remember the name.”
”The Rev. Mr. Barnes, of Hayfield Centre, Connecticut. I have been preaching there for--is it six or seven years, my dear?”
”Seven,” said his wife.
”I should think that would be sufficient. You may mention that to Mr.
Ball or Mr. Black, if you please. I presume after that he will not be afraid to purchase.”
Mr. Montgomery said this with an air of conscious respectability and high standing, which might readily impose upon strangers. But, by bad luck, what he had said was heard by a person able to confute him.
”Did you say you were from Hayfield Centre?” asked a gentleman, standing a few feet distant.
”Yes,” said Mr. Montgomery.
”I think you said your name was Barnes?”
”Yes, sir.”
”And that you have been preaching there for the last seven years?”
”Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Montgomery, but there was rather less confidence in his tone. In fact he was beginning to feel uneasy.
”It is very strange,” said the other. ”I have a sister living in Hayfield Centre, and frequently visit the place myself, and so of course know something of it. Yet I have never heard of any clergyman named Barnes preaching there.”
Mr. Montgomery saw that things looked critical.
”You are strangely mistaken, sir,” he said. ”However, I will not press the sale. If you will return the ring (to the clerk) I will dispose of it elsewhere.”
But the clerk's suspicions had been aroused by what had been said.
”I will first speak to Mr. Ball,” he said.
”There is no occasion to speak to him. I shall not sell the ring to-day.
To-morrow, I will come with witnesses whose testimony will outweigh that of this gentleman, who I suspect never was in Hayfield Centre in his life. I will trouble you for the ring.”
”I hope you don't intend to give it to him,” said the gentleman. ”The presumption is that, as he is masquerading, he has not come by it honestly.”
”I shall not deign to notice your insinuations,” said Mr. Montgomery, who concealed beneath a consequential tone his real uneasiness. ”The ring, if you please.”
”Don't give it to him.”
As the clerk seemed disinclined to surrender the ring, Mr. Montgomery said: ”Young man, you will find it to be a serious matter to withhold my property.”