Part 14 (2/2)

”I have thought so too,” said Renshaw.

”Then I must go back at once,” she continued impulsively. ”Father must not be left alone.”

”Nor must YOU,” said Renshaw, quickly. ”Do let me return with you, and share with you and your father the trouble I have brought upon you. Do not,” he added in a lower tone, ”deprive me of the only chance of expiating my offense, of making myself worthy your forgiveness.”

”I am sure,” said Rosey, lowering her lids and half withdrawing her arm, ”I am sure I have nothing to forgive. You did not believe the treasure belonged to us any more than to anybody else, until you knew ME--”

”That is true,” said the young man, attempting to take her hand.

”I mean,” said Rosey, blus.h.i.+ng, and showing a distracting row of little teeth in one of her infrequent laughs, ”oh, you know what I mean.” She withdrew her arm gently, and became interested in the selection of certain wayside bay leaves as they pa.s.sed along. ”All the same, I don't believe in this treasure,” she said abruptly, as if to change the subject. ”I don't believe it ever was hidden inside the Pontiac.”

”That can easily be ascertained now,” said Renshaw.

”But it's a pity you didn't find it out while you were about it,” said Rosey. ”It would have saved so much talk and trouble.”

”I have told you why I didn't search the s.h.i.+p,” responded Renshaw, with a slight bitterness. ”But it seems I could only avoid being a great rascal by becoming a great fool.”

”You never intended to be a rascal,” said Rosey, earnestly, ”and you couldn't be a fool, except in heeding what a silly girl says. I only meant if you had taken me into your confidence it would have been better.”

”Might I not say the same to you regarding your friend, the old Frenchman?” returned Renshaw. ”What if I were to confess to you that I lately suspected him of knowing the secret, and of trying to gain your a.s.sistance?”

Instead of indignantly repudiating the suggestion, to the young man's great discomfiture, Rosey only knit her pretty brows, and remained for some minutes silent. Presently she asked timidly,--

”Do you think it wrong to tell another person's secret for their own good?”

”No,” said Renshaw, promptly.

”Then I'll tell you Monsieur de Ferrieres's! But only because I believe from what you have just said that he will turn out to have some right to the treasure.”

Then with kindling eyes, and a voice eloquent with sympathy, Rosey told the story of her accidental discovery of de Ferrieres's miserable existence in the loft. Clothing it with the unconscious poetry of her fresh, young imagination, she lightly pa.s.sed over his antique gallantry and grotesque weakness, exalting only his lonely sufferings and mysterious wrongs. Renshaw listened, lost between shame for his late suspicions and admiration for her thoughtful delicacy, until she began to speak of de Ferrieres's strange allusions to the foreign papers in his portmanteau. ”I think some were law papers, and I am almost certain I saw the word Callao printed on one of them.”

”It may be so,” said Renshaw, thoughtfully. ”The old Frenchman has always pa.s.sed for a harmless, wandering eccentric. I hardly think public curiosity has ever even sought to know his name, much less his history. But had we not better first try to find if there IS any property before we examine his claims to it?”

”As you please,” said Rosey, with a slight pout; ”but you will find it much easier to discover him than his treasure. It's always easier to find the thing you're not looking for.”

”Until you want it,” said Renshaw, with sudden gravity.

”How pretty it looks over there,” said Rosey, turning her conscious eyes to the opposite mountain.

”Very.”

They had reached the top of the hill, and in the near distance the chimney of Madrono Cottage was even now visible. At the expected sight they unconsciously stopped--unconsciously disappointed. Rosey broke the embarra.s.sing silence.

”There's another way home, but it's a roundabout way,” she said timidly.

”Let us take it,” said Renshaw.

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