Mr. Stayman appeared immediately, and welcomed them all cordially.

“Come to my office,” he said, “and I will give you comfortable seats; we can converse there without interruption.”  They followed him, passing through a small room lined with mirrors from floor to ceiling, and while Mr. Heil gave his order, one of the young clerks took Mrs. Steiner and the boys over the building.

“Where are the workrooms?” asked Fritz.

“They are in a large building back of this one.  Here we have only suits, and cloth in the piece.”

CHAPTER X

PIXY’S EARNINGS

Soon the city lay behind them and they entered the avenue lined with great trees which led to the Forest-house, a favorite resort of the people of Frankfort.

As soon as they reached the beautiful grounds, Mrs. Steiner rested upon a rustic chair and her brother took a seat beside her, and rolling his handkerchief in a ball, as he had often done before in playful mood, he showed it to Pixy and then while Fritz held his hands over his pet’s eyes, he threw it far away.  Pixy bounded away the moment the hands were removed, sniffed about through the grass, and in a very short time returned with the handkerchief.  As it was white, it was easily seen in the grass, so Mr. Heil showed Pixy the black leather letter-case that he always carried with him, and threw it near a clump of tall bushes.  Pixy ran off, brought it back, but instead of waiting to be applauded and petted he hurried away, and soon returned with a new pocketbook which he would deliver to no one but Mr. Heil.

“Some visitor has lost it,” said Mrs. Steiner, “and no doubt is worrying over the loss.”

“Yes, and it feels bulky.  There may be things of value in it,” replied her brother.  “We must try to find the owner.”

“Open it, father,” said Fritz, “it may be that the owner’s name is in it.”

“Yes, it may be, but I prefer to wait until we have a witness other than ourselves for we are strangers here.”

“Why should we not be witnesses enough, father?”

“Because some one may have found it, taken money from it and thrown it away, and we might be blamed.”

“What can you do about it, father?”

“I will take it to the music pavilion.  Perhaps some one in the crowd is the owner.”

At that moment the band stationed in the pavilion began playing The Watch on the Rhine, and Mr. Heil and his party left their place under the trees and joined the listeners within.  As soon as the music was finished, he called a waiter to him.  “Will you please ask the proprietor to favor me by coming here?  I have something I wish to say to him.”

“Yes,” replied the waiter, “but I am sure he cannot come just yet, for he is intending to speak to the assembly, but I will tell him as soon as he is at liberty.”

A little later the proprietor requested the attention of the guests, and announced that an English visitor had lost his pocketbook and would be very grateful if the finder would return it to him as it contained some valuable papers and some English money.  It had also German money which he would give freely to the finder for restoring the pocketbook.