a locket that your father always carried, and that was
missing from his body."

"This is the locket," I replied. "I know it well! And here lies the
murderer! Thank Heaven, I have avenged my father's death!"

"There is doubtless something in it," suggested the captain. "Most
likely a miniature portrait."

He looked me straight in the eyes as he spoke, and with an expression of
calm curiosity.

"It is the use to which such trinkets are usually put," he added. "I am
glad you have recovered it, Carew. It is a memento to be prized and
treasured."

By this time all of the party were gathered around me; Arnold's wound
had been tightly and deftly bandaged, and the flow of blood checked. A
whisper of my strange discovery ran from mouth to mouth, and Flora
pressed my arm in silent sympathy. There was a solemn hush, and every
eye was on me as I fingered the locket in search of a spring, for I knew
it opened that way. I must have touched the spot by accident, for of a
sudden the trinket flew open. But the inside was quite empty. I could
not repress a little cry of disappointment.

"Strange!" muttered Captain Rudstone "I was sure the locket held
something! You say you never knew what your father kept in it, Carew?"

"No, he never spoke of it," I replied. "It was rarely I caught a glimpse
of it, though I knew that he always wore it."

"Have you reason to believe that he kept anything in it?" asked
Christopher Burley.

"To tell the truth, sir, I have not," I answered.

"Ah, that lets light on the matter," said the captain. "The trinket is
probably treasured for itself--for the sake of some old association
connected with it."

"That is very likely," I assented. "At all events, it is empty now."

Christopher Burley begged to be allowed to examine the locket, and after
a close scrutiny he handed it back to me.

"This is a very curious case, Mr. Carew," he said, speaking in dry and
legal tones. "It resolves itself into two issues. In the first place,
the locket may have been empty when your father wore it. In the second
place it may have contained something. But if we take the latter for
granted, what became of the contents? It is extremely unlikely that the
Indian could have found the spring, or, indeed, suspected that the bit
of gold was hollow."

"Which goes to prove," put in Captain Rudstone, "that the trinket has
been restored to Mr. Carew in the same condition in which it was torn
from his father's body. The redsk