ey shut the door, an' the old bloke wi' the white weskit
an' gold winkers cops the lot. No banks fer me, thank yer!"

Then she explained that ever since she opened the laundry, she had
squeezed something out of her earnings as one squeezes blood out of a
stone. She had saved threepence this week, sixpence that, sometimes
even a shilling went into the child's money-box that she had chosen as
a safe deposit. When the coins mounted to a sovereign, she had changed
them into a gold piece. Then, her mind disturbed by visions of thieves
bent on plunder, she had hit on a plan. A floorboard was loose in the
kitchen. She had levered this up, and probed with a stick till she
touched solid earth. Then the yellow coin, rolled carefully in a ball
of paper, was dropped into the hole. And for years she had added to
her unseen treasure, dropping her precious coins into that dark hole
with more security than a man deposits thousands in the bank. But the
time was come to unearth the golden pile.

She trembled with excitement when Jonah ripped up the narrow plank with
the poker. Then he thrust his arm down till he touched the soft earth.
He seemed a long time groping, and Mrs Yabsley wondered at the delay.
At last he sat up, with a perplexed look.

"I can't feel nuthin'," he said. "Are yez sure this is the place?"

"Of course it is," said Mrs Yabsley, sharply. "I dropped them down
right opposite the 'ead of that nail."

Jonah groped again without success.

"'Ere, let me try," said Mum, impatiently.

She knelt over the hole to get her bearings, and then plunged her arm
into the gap. Jonah and Ada, on their knees, watched in silence.

At last, with a cry of despair, Mrs Yabsley sat up on the floor.

There was no doubt, the treasure was gone! In this extremity, her wit,
her philosophy, her temper, her very breath deserted her, and she wept.
She looked the picture of misery as the tears rolled down her face.
Jonah and Ada stared at one another in dismay, each wondering if this
story of a hidden treasure was a delusion of the old woman's mind.
Like her neighbours, who lived from hand to mouth, she was given to
dreaming of imaginary riches falling on her from the clouds. But her
grief was too real for doubt.

"Well, if it ain't there, w'ere is it?" cried Jonah, angrily, feeling
that he, too, had been robbed. "If it's gone, somebody took it. Are
yer sure yer niver got a few beers in, an' started skitin' about it?"
He lo