“I don’t see him,” said Carroll.

Then Anderson turned upon him.

“Sir,” he said, with a kind of slow heat, “I am at a loss as to what to attribute your tone and manner.  If you doubt—­”

“Not at all, my dear sir,” replied Carroll, with a wave of the hand.  “But I am told that my son is in here, and when, on entering, I do not see him, I am naturally somewhat surprised.”

“Your son was certainly in this room when I left it a moment ago, and that is all I know about it,” said Anderson.  “And I will add that your son’s visit was entirely unsolicited—­”

“My dear sir,” interrupted Carroll again, “I assure you that I do not for a moment conceive the possibility of anything else.  But the fact remains that I am told he is here—­”

“He was here,” said Anderson, looking about with an impatient and bewildered scowl.

“He could not have gone out through the store while we were there,” said Carroll, in a puzzled tone.

“I do not see how he could have done so unobserved, certainly.”

“The window,” said Carroll, taking a step towards it.

“Thirty feet from the ground; sheer wall and rocks below.  He could not have gone out there without wings.”

“He has no wings, and I very much fear he never will have any at this rate,” said Carroll, moving out.  “Well, Mr. Anderson, I regret that my son should have annoyed you.”

“He has not annoyed me in the least,” Anderson replied, shortly.  “I only regret that his peculiar method of telling the truth should have led me unwittingly to occasion your wife and daughters so much anxiety, and I trust that you will soon trace him.”

“Oh yes, he will turn up all right,” said Carroll, easily.  “If he was in your office a moment ago, he cannot be far off.”

There was the faintest suggestion of emphasis upon the “if.”

Anderson spoke to the elderly clerk, who had been leaning against the shelves ranged with packages of cereal, surmounted by a flaming row of picture advertisements, regarding them and listening with a curious abstraction, which almost gave the impression of stupidity.  This man had lived boy and man in one groove of the grocer business, until he needed prodding to shift him momentarily into any other.

In reality he managed most of the details of the selling.  He heard what the two men said, and at the same time was considering that he was to send the wagon round the first thing in the morning with pease to the postmaster’s, and a new barrel of sugar to the Amidons, and he was calculating the price of sugar at the slight recent rise.

“Mr. Price,” said Anderson to him, “may I ask that you will tell this gentleman if a little boy went into my office a short time ago?”

The clerk looked blankly at Anderson, who patiently repeated his question.

“A little boy,” repeated the clerk.

“Yes,” said Anderson.