all about it.
He said he put it in the flue of the fireplace, because there was no
closet in the room. Now, if nobody stole it, the diary must be there
yet. I have looked into the flue, but I couldn't see anything of it; and
I have made up my mind that it dropped down somewhere."

"The room is directly over this parlor, and if it dropped into the
chimney, it must have come down into this fireplace," replied Leopold.
"I am sure nothing was ever seen of it."

They examined the flue of the Franklin stove, and Miss Liverage was
satisfied with the young man's statement in regard to its construction.

"Some one may have picked it up and put it away," suggested the nurse.

"There was a summer piece fastened into the front of this stove, which
was not taken down till I removed it to make the fire when you came. If
the diary had been there, I should have found it. But I will search the
whole house for it, though I am of Harvey Barth's opinion, that some one
stole the book. If any person saw him put it into the flue, as Harvey
thought the drummer did, he might have supposed it was something very
valuable. Why should he take so much pains to hide it, if it was not? If
the drummer did not take it himself, he may have told somebody else, who
did steal it. If he had left the diary on the table, nobody would have
touched it, I know. It was all because he hid it, that he lost it."

Miss Liverage was sure the diary was still in the house, and during that
and the next day, while the storm lasted, Leopold searched the hotel
from cellar to garret. He did not find the key to the hidden treasure of
High Rock. The nurse searched for herself, so far as she could do so
without exciting the suspicions of the hotel people; but she was no more
successful than her confidant in the secret. If the diary was in the
house, it could not be found. The structure of the chimney, in which the
flue of the fireplace was built, was carefully examined; and Leopold's
conclusion seemed to be fully verified. Miss Liverage was reluctantly
compelled to abandon all hope of finding the coveted volume.

The storm ended, and the sun shone again. The wind came fresh and cold
from the north-west. The nurse looked from the windows of the hotel upon
the waters of the river, which, sheltered from the force of the blast,
were as smooth as an inland pond though the waves rolled up white and
angry beyond the point. The guest at the Cliff House, though she had
given up all