that look like them. I'm very skeptical."

"If you could bring me some, Tom, I could soon tell whether
they were real or not. Can you?"

The lad shook his head.

"I don't expect to see Mr. Jenks again," he said. "He talked
rather wildly about waiting to meet me, but that man is odd--crazy,
perhaps--and I don't imagine I'll see him. He's harmless,but he's
eccentric. Well, there was quite some excitement for a time."

"I should say there was. I thought it was a plan to rob me,"
and the jeweler began putting away the diamond pins. In fact, the
excitement so filled the minds of himself and Tom that neither of
them thought any more of the object of the lad's visit, and the
young inventor departed without purchasing the pin he had come after.

It was not until he was out on the street, walking toward his
home, that the matter came back to his mind.

"I declare!" he exclaimed. "I didn't get that pin for Mary,
after all! Well, never mind, I have a week until her birthday,
and I can get it to-morrow."

He walked rapidly toward home, for the weather looked
threatening, and Tom had no umbrella. He was musing on the
happenings of the evening when he reached his house. His father
was out, as was Garret Jackson, the engineer; and Mrs. Baggert,
the housekeeper, was entertaining a lady in the sitting-room, so,