for no one could have suspected its
existence.

Faithful to the agreement he had made, Leopold wrote a letter that
evening to Miss Liverage, directing it to the address she had given him.
The letter contained but a few lines, merely intimating that he had
important business with her. The young man was now anxious to visit the
beach under High Rock, for the purpose of identifying the mortuary
emblem which had so strongly impressed the author of the journal, in the
lightning and the hurricane; but he could not be spared from his work,
and it was several months before he was able to verify the statements in
the diary.

Weeks and months passed away, and no answer to his letter came. In June
he wrote another letter, to the "Superintendent of Bellevue Hospital,
New York City," in which Harvey Barth died, requesting information in
regard to Miss Sarah Liverage. A reply soon came, to the effect that the
nurse had married one of her patients, and now lived somewhere in
Oregon, the writer did not know where.

CHAPTER IX.

COFFIN ROCK.

Miss Sarah Liverage had taken herself out of the reach of all further
communication in regard to the hidden treasure. Leopold had no hope of
being able to see or hear from her. She had not sent him her last
address, and he had used all the means in his power to carry out the
terms of the agreement. He considered himself, therefore, released from
all responsibility, so far as she was concerned. But even then he did
not feel like going to High Rock and taking the money for his own or his
father's use. He could not get rid of the idea that the money belonged
to somebody. If Wallbridge had saved this money from the earnings of two
years in Cuba, it certainly ought to go to his heirs, now that he was
dead.

The remarks of Harvey Barth in his diary seemed to indicate that the
passenger had committed some crime, or at least that he was open to the
suspicion of having done so. Leopold considered, whether this might not
be the reason why no one had yet claimed any relationship to him. The
young man was sorely perplexed in regard to his duty in the matter; and
he was really more afraid of doing wrong than he was of losing twelve
hundred dollars in gold. He did not like to confess it even to himself;
but he was afraid that his father's views, if he told him about the
hidden treasure, might he looser than his own. He believed that the
landlord was even more honest than the majority of men; but