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the moment Matt could do little more than stare at the two men that confronted him. In a dim way he realized that Isaac Marvelling's store had been entered and robbed, and that the mean-minded store-keeper fully believed that he was the guilty party.

"Are you a-holding him, Jackson?" went on Isaac Marvelling anxiously. "Look out, or he may slip away from you."

"I've got him, right enough," returned Jackson, one of the local constables. "He'll have hard work to get away."

"What does this mean?" demanded the young auctioneer, aroused at last to the necessity of doing something in his own behalf. "Let go of me!"

"Oh, no, not just yet!" returned Jackson. "You're wanted, and you know it."

"That's right, Jackson, don't let him slip you!" put in Marvelling eagerly. "He's a good talker, but don't let that count with you."