Part 34 (1/2)

”In there.” Polly pointed to the back room, and without ceremony the four filed past and into the little living-room. Mrs. Deane was seated in a rocker, her spectacles pushed down on her nose, a paper across her knees, and her eyes fixed in smiling inquiry on the doorway.

Bob led the way. On the outspread paper he laid a brown envelop. ”Wish you a Merry Christmas, ma'am,” he said.

Laurie followed, deposited his envelop beside Bob's, repeated the greeting, and drew aside to make way for Nod and George. The Widow looked inquiringly from the stout envelops to the boys, smiling tolerantly the while. Boys were always up to pranks, and she liked them, boys and pranks both!

”What are these?” she asked, finally, when the fourth envelop lay in her lap.

Polly, looking over her shoulder, gasped as she read the writing on one of the packets, and her eyes, as round as round, looked across at Laurie.

”_Nod! They aren't-You haven't-_”

”Yes, they are!” cried Laurie. ”Look and see for yourself! Open them, Mrs. Deane!”

Ten minutes later, when the first excitement had somewhat subsided, Polly clapped her hands.

”Why,” she cried, ”now we know what those sounds were we used to hear, Mama! They were Uncle Peter down there in the cellar! They were his footsteps! And only a little while ago I thought I heard sounds sort of like them! And that must have been you boys!”

”Of course,” agreed Bob. ”And we could hear you folks up here quite plainly. There goes my last hope of catching a ghost!”

”How many are there to share in the money, Mrs. Deane?” asked George.

”Dear me, I'm not quite sure.” She looked inquiringly over her spectacles at Polly. ”Weren't there seven, dear?”

”Eight, Mama.”

”Well, even then it isn't so bad” said George. ”One eighth of sixty-two-thousand-”

”Seven thousand seven hundred and fifty,” announced Laurie, promptly.

”And the bonds may be worth more than we figured, ma'am!”