Chapter 17

She was clad in black velvet, trimmed in sable. Her head was bare. A blue cloak was thrown, with careless grace, about her gleaming shoulders. One slender hand lifted the gown from before her feet. She saw the sleeping man and paused, and a smile of infinite tenderness passed across her face.

A moment she hesitated, and at the thought, a faint blush suffused her face. Then she glided softly over, bent and kissed him on the lips.

He opened his eyes, and sprang up! Startled! She was there, before him, the blush still on cheek and brow.

"Elaine! sweetheart!" he cried. And, straightway took her, unresisting, in his arms....

"Tell me all about yourself," he said, at last, drawing her down into the chair and seating himself on the arm. "Where is Miss Carrington--safe?"

"Colin's with her--I reckon she's safe!" smiled Elaine. "It won't be his fault if she isn't, I'm sure.--I left them at Ashburton, and came over here to--you."

"Alone!" said Croyden, bending over her.

She nodded, eyes half downcast.

"You foolish girl!"

"I'll go back at once----"

He laughed, joyously.

"Not yet a little while!" and bent again.

"Geoffrey! you're dreadful!" she exclaimed, half smothered. "My hair, dear,--do be careful!"

"I'll be good--if you will kiss me again!" he said.

"But you're not asleep," she objected.

"That's why I want it."

"And you will promise--not to kiss me again?"

"For half an hour."

"Honest?"

"Honest."

She looked up at him tantalizingly, her red lips parted, her bosom fluttering below.

"If it's worth coming half way for, sweetheart--you may," she said....

"Now, if you're done with foolishness--for a little while," she said, gayly, "I'll tell you how we managed to get free."

"You know why you were abducted?" he asked.

"Oh, yes!--the Parmenter jewels. Davila told me the story, and how you didn't find them, though our abductors think you did, and won't believe otherwise."

"You suffered no hurt?" he asked, sharply.

"None--we were most courteously treated; and they released us, as quickly as the check was paid."

"What do you mean?" he demanded.

"I mean, that I gave them my check for the ransom money--you hadn't the jewels, you couldn't comply with the demand. How do you suppose we got free?" she questioned.

"You paid the money?" he asked, again.

"Certainly! I knew you couldn't pay it, so I did. Don't let us think of it, dear!--It's over, and we have each other, now. What is money compared to that?" Then suddenly she, woman-like, went straight back to it. "How did you think we managed to get free--escaped?" she asked.

"Yes!" he answered. "Yes--I never thought of your paying the money."

She regarded him critically.

"No!" she said, "you are deceiving me!--you are--_you_ paid the money, also!" she cried.

"What matters it?" he said joyfully. "What matters anything now? Macloud and I _did_ pay the ransom to-day--but of what consequence is it; whether you bought your freedom, or we bought it, or both bought it? You and Davila are here, again--that's the only thing that matters!"

"Right you are! Geoffrey, right you are!" came Macloud's voice from the hallway, and Davila and he walked into the room.

Elaine, with a little shriek, sprang up.

"Don't be bashful!" said Macloud. "Davila and I were occupying similar positions at Ashburton, a short time ago. Weren't we, little girl?" as he made a motion to put his arm around her.

Davila eluded him--though the traitor red confirmed his words--and sought Elaine's side for safety.

"It's a pleasure only deferred, my dear!" he laughed. "By the way, Elaine, how did Croyden happen to give in? He was shying off at your wealth--said it would be giving hostages to fortune, and all that rot."

"Shut up, you beggar!" Croyden exclaimed. "I'm going to try to make good."

"Geoffrey," said Elaine, "won't you show us the old pirate's letter--we're all interested in it, now."

"Certainly, I will!" he said. "I'll show you the letter, and where I found it, and anything else you want to see. Nothing is locked, to-night."

They went over to the escritoire. Croyden opened the secret drawer, and took out the letter.

"A Message from the Dead!" he said, solemnly, and handed it to Elaine.

She carried it to the table, spread it out under the lamp, and Davila and she studied it, carefully, even as Croyden and Macloud had done--reading the Duval endorsements over and over again.

"It seems to me there is something queer about these postscripts," she said, at last; "something is needed to make them clear. Is this the entire letter?--didn't you find anything else?"

"Nothing!" said Croyden.

"May I look?" she asked.

"Most assuredly, sweetheart."

"It's a bit dark in this hole. Let me have a match."

She struck it, and peered back into the recess.

"Ah!" she exclaimed. "Here is something!--only a corner visible." She put in her hand. "It has slipped down, back of the false partition. I'll get it, presently.--There!"

She drew out a tiny sheet of paper, and handed it to Croyden.

"Does that help?" she asked.

Croyden glanced at it; then gave a cry of amazed surprise.

"It does!" he said. "It does! It's the key to the mystery. Listen!"

The rest crowded around him while he read:

"Hampton, Maryland. "5 Oct. 1738.

"Memorandum to accompany the letter of Robert Parmenter, dated 10 May 1738.

"Whereas, it is stipulated by the said Parmenter that the Jewels shall be used only in the Extremity of Need; and hence, as I have an abundance of this world's Goods, that Need will, likely, not come to me. And judging that Greenberry Point will change, in time--so that my son or his Descendants, if occasion arise, may be unable to locate the Treasure--I have lifted the Iron box, from the place where Parmenter buried it, and have reinterred it in the cellar of my House in Hampton, renewing the Injunction which Parmenter put upon it, that it shall be used only in the Extremity of Need. When this Need arise, it will be found in the south-east corner of the front cellar. At the depth of two feet, between two large stones, is the Iron box. It contains the jewels, the most marvelous I have ever seen.

"Marmaduke Duval."

For a moment, they stood staring at one another too astonished to speak.

"My Lord!" Macloud finally ejaculated. "To think that it was here, all the time!"

Croyden caught up the lamp.

"Come on!" he said.

They trooped down to the cellar, Croyden leading the way. Moses was off for the evening, they had the house to themselves. As they passed the foot of the stairs, Macloud picked up a mattock.

"Me for the digging!" he said. "Which is the south-east corner, Davila?"

"There, under those boxes!" said she.

They were quickly tossed aside.

"The ground is not especially hard," observed Macloud, with the first stroke. "I reckon a yard square is sufficient.--At a depth of two feet the memorandum says, doesn't it?"

No one answered. Fascinated, they were watching the fall of the pick. With every blow, they were listening for it to strike the stones.

"Better get a shovel, Croyden, we'll need it," said Macloud, pausing long enough, to throw off his coat.... "Oh! I forgot to say, I wired the Pinkerton man to recover the package you buried this morning."

Croyden only nodded--stood the lamp on a box, and returned with the coal scoop.

"This will answer, I reckon," he said, and fell to work.

"It seems absurd!" remarked Macloud, between strokes. "To have hunted the treasure, for weeks, all over Greenberry Point, and then to find it in the cellar, like a can of lard or a bushel of potatoes."

"You haven't found it, yet," Croyden cautioned. "And we've gone the depth mentioned."

"No! we haven't found it, yet!--but we're going to find it!" Macloud answered, sinking the pick, viciously, in the ground, with the last word.

Crack!

It had struck hard against a stone.

"What did I tell you?" Macloud cried, sinking the pick in at another place.

Crack!

Again, it struck! and again! and again! The fifth stroke laid the stone bare--the sixth and seventh loosened it, still more--the eighth and ninth completed the task.

"Give me the shovel!" said he.

When the earth was away and the stone exposed, he stooped and, putting his fingers under the edges, heaved it out.

"The rest is for you, Croyden!" and stepped aside.

The iron box was found!

For a moment, Croyden looked at it, rather dazedly. Could it be the jewels were _there_!--within his reach!--under that lid! Suddenly, he laughed!--gladly, gleefully, as a boy--and sprang down into the hole.

The box clung to its resting place for a second, as though it was reluctant to be disturbed--then it yielded, and Croyden swung it onto the bank.

"We'll take it to the library," he said, scraping it clean of the adhering earth.

And carrying it before them, like the Ark of the Covenant, they went joyously up to the floor above.

He placed it on the table under the chandelier, where all could see. It was of iron, rusty with age; in dimension, about a foot square; and fastened by a hasp, with the bar of the lock thrust through but not secured.

"Light the gas, Colin!--every burner," he said. "We'll have the full effulgence, if you please."...

For a little time, the lid resisted. Suddenly, it yielded.

"Behold!" he heralded, and flung it back.

The scintillations which leaped out to meet them, were like the rays from myriads of gleaming, glistening, varicolored lights, of dazzling brightness and infinite depth. A wonderful cavern of coruscating splendor--rubies and diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, pearls and opals glowing with all the fire of self, and the resentment of long neglect.

"Heaven! What beauty!" exclaimed Davila.

It broke the spell.

"They are real!" Croyden laughed. "You may touch them--they will not fade."

They put them out on the table--in little heaps of color. The women exclaiming whene'er they touched them, cooingly as a woman does when handling jewels--fondling them, caressing them, loving them.

At last, the box was empty. They stood back and gazed--fascinated by it all:--the color--the glowing reds and whites, and greens and blues.

"It is wonderful! wonderful!" breathed Elaine.

"It is wonderful--and it's true!" said Croyden.

Two necklaces lay among the rubies, alike as lapidary's art could make them. Croyden handed one to Macloud, the other he took.

"In remembrance of your release, and of Parmenter's treasure!" he said, and clasped it around Elaine's fair neck.

Macloud clasped his around Davila's.

"Who cares, now, for the time spent on Greenberry Point or the double reward!" he laughed.

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Transcriber's note:

Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and intent.