a thin crust. I never was afraid of the devil
until my sin brought me close to him. I want to finish this business,
and before day to-morrow I will come over here and dig up my box.
There will be dim moonlight by three o'clock, and if it should be
cloudy, I can shut my eyes and find the place. I tell you, Peleg, I
am sick and tired of this dirty work; and sometimes I think I am no
better than a hyena prowling among dead men's bones. Come around to
the cowshed in the morning, about seven o'clock, when the family will
be in the library holding prayers; and when I go to milk, I will
bring you the paper. Only to look at, to read over, mind you! It
doesn't leave my hands, until the old General's gold jingles in my
pocket. Then he is welcome to it, and Minnie may suffer the
consequences; and you and I will divide the profits. I want to go
away and rest with my sister Penelope the remainder of my life, and
though the family here beg me to stay, I have already given notice
that I intend to stop work next month."

"Very well, don't fail me; I am as anxious to close up the job as you
possibly can be. I should like to see the child, Minnie's child; but
I might spoil everything if she looks like her mother. Good-bye till
to-morrow."

The two walked away, one passing down the avenue of elms out into the
street. The other sauntered in the direction of the parsonage, but
ere she reached the small gate, Hannah turned aside to a low iron
railing that enclosed two monuments; a marble angel with expanded
wings standing above a child's grave, and a broken column wreathed
with sculptured ivy, placed on a mound covered with grass. Just
behind the former and close to the railing, rose a noble Lombardy
poplar that towered even above the elms, and at its base a mass of
periwinkle and ground ivy ran hither and thither in luxuriant
confusion, clasping a few ambitious tendrils even about the ancient
trunk.

Over the railing leaned Hannah, peering down for several moments, at
the lush green creepers, then she walked on to the parsonage gate,
and disappeared.

Watching her movements, Regina readily surmised that somewhere near
that tree the paper was secreted; and she was painfully puzzled to
unravel the thread that evidently linked her with the mystery.

"I am the child she spoke of, and she has tried again and again to
'pump' me, as she called it. 'Minnie' must mean my mother; but that
is not her name. Odilie Orphia Orme never could be twis