na's
profile intently, "would you propose keeping the contributions here?"

"Of course!" said Madison. "And not only here, but openly displayed as
an added incentive for others to give--if added incentive be needed.
Here, for instance"--he rose as he spoke, went to the mantel over the
fireplace and lifted down a quaint, japanned box, fashioned in the shape
of a little chest, which he placed upon the table. "And here, too"--he
crossed to the bookshelves in the alcove, and took down a very old,
flexible-covered book. "Once," he said, "the Patriarch showed me this.
It was a blank book originally, half of it is blank still; but in the
front, in the Patriarch's own writing, is an essay he wrote in the years
gone by on 'The Power of Faith'--what could be more fitting than that
the remaining pages should be filled with a record of the contributions
to that faith?" He laid the book on the table beside the little chest,
and sat down again. "There is no display, no ornamentation, no attempt
at anything of that kind--it is simplicity, those things serving which
are first at hand--as it seems to me it should be--those who give record
their names and gifts in this book--the little chest to hold the gifts
is open, free to the inspection of all."

"But is that wise?" demurred Thornton. "So large a sum of money as must
accumulate to be left openly about? Would it not be a temptation to some
to steal? Might it not even endanger Miss Vail and the Patriarch
himself--subject them, indeed, to attack?"

"I get your idea," said Madison to himself--while he gazed at Thornton
in pained surprise; "but there'll never be more than the day's catch in
the box at a time, though of course you don't know that. You see, we'll
empty it every night, and start it off fresh every morning, with a
trinket or two put back for bait. I'm glad you mentioned it though, it's
a little detail I mustn't forget to speak to the Flopper about." But
aloud he said, and there was a sort of shocked awe in his voice:
"Steal--_here_! In this sacred place! No man would dare--the most
hardened criminal would draw back. Why do even we who sit here speak as
we have been speaking with hushed and lowered voices?--that very sense
of a presence unseen around us, that hovers over us, is a mightier
safeguard than the strongest bolts and locks, than the steel-barred
vaults of any bank. It would seem indeed to profane our own faith even
to entertain such an idea--to me this place is a s