DIAMOND TOLLS
CHAPTER I
OBERT GOLES left Maiden Lane, in New York City, with an assortment of several hundred diamonds and several rubies to visit the Ofsten & Groner customers who were nearly all jewellery stores down the Ohio River. The total value of the gems was $106,450, wholesale. The jewels were in a small leather-bound case, weighing with its contents less than a pound.
Ofsten & Groner knew all there was to know about Obert Goles, from his grandparents to his own record in Ottawa, Ill., and thence eastward when he brought four beautiful pearls which he traded for two thousand dollars and a job as office boy in the Ofsten & Groner establishment. The pearls were finds from Fox River, and helped make that river famous in jewellery circles as pearl-bearing. He offered with that money to pay for the bond which the firm required of every employee, but the lad's willingness and his eagerness caused the company to see means of remitting the cost at Christmas time.
3
