They obeyed and looked on while he dumped the things from the box to the top of the desk and pulled his memorandum toward him.  One by one he pushed the articles aside and checked the list with a pencil.  Finally he chuckled.  “Wiggin didn’t know much more’n half the stuff he lost,” he said.  “There’s nine watches here instead of seven and a lot more other things than he’s got down here on his list.  Here he is now, I guess.”

Mr. Wiggin was a bewhiskered, nervous-mannered little man and he hurried into the Chief’s office as though he had run all the way from his house or store.

“Well, well, Chief!” he exclaimed breathlessly.  “So you’ve found it, eh?  I want to know!  I want to know!  Got the thieves too, eh?” He scowled darkly at Clint and Amy, and Amy was heard to assert under his breath that he hoped Mr. Wiggin would choke.  The Chief laughed.

“No, we haven’t got the thieves, Mr. Wiggin.  These boys gave us the clue that led to the stuff.  Shake hands, boys, with Mr. Wiggin.  That’s Byrd and that’s Thayer.  They’re Brimfield Academy fellows, Mr. Wiggin, and they happened to see the thieves burying the things about five miles out of town toward Thacher.”  Whereupon the Chief told the story to the jeweller and the latter, recovering from his embarrassment, insisted on shaking hands again.

“I want to know!” he ejaculated, beaming at them like a pleased sparrow.  “I want to know!  Smart lads, eh, Chief?  Now—­now—­” He hesitated, his eyes darting from Clint to Amy and from Amy to the Chief.  Then he cleared his throat nervously, slapped his hands together gently and continued.  “There—­hem—­there was no reward offered, boys, but—­”

“That’s all right,” replied Amy briskly.  “We don’t want anything, Mr. Wiggin.”

“No, no, of course not, of course not!  Only—­hem—­I was thinking that—­possibly, say, fifty dollars between you, or—­”

“No, thanks,” interrupted Clint.  “We’re glad we were able to help you recover the things, sir.  And now I reckon we’ll have to be getting to the station.”

But Mr. Wiggin was the sort who becomes more insistent against opposition.  Really, the boys must take something!  Really they must!  He appealed to Chief Carey, and the Chief agreed.  “Now—­now—­” continued the jeweller, “say a watch apiece, if they didn’t like to take money.  Just a gold watch.  Here were two nice ones!”

In the end his insistence won, the boys becoming at last too embarrassed and too fearful of losing their train to refuse longer.  A handsome gold watch, not much thicker than a book-cover, was attached to Amy’s chain, while Clint, having a perfectly good watch already, was invited to select something else from the array on the desk and finally allowed himself to become possessed of a diamond and ruby scarfpin which was much the finest thing he had ever owned.  And then, with ten minutes to reach the station in, they shook hands with the jeweller and Chief Carey and relievedly hurried out, the Chief’s hearty invitation to come and see him again pursuing them into the corridor.