ing loyal to the South, the Ralestones probably would not take what
you call 'real money,'" replied Charity.

"It's nice to know how wealthy we once were," Val observed. "What are
you going to do with that wall-paper, Rupert?"

"Oh, chuck it in my desk. I'll get someone to look it over; there might
be a collector's item among these bills. Now let's have the joker out of
_this_ bundle." He plucked at the fastenings of the felt bag.

When he had pulled off its wrappings, a silver tray with coffee- and
chocolate-pot, cream pitcher and sugar bowl stood, tarnished and dingy,
on the floor.

"That's more like it." Ricky picked up the chocolate-pot. "Do you
suppose it will ever be possible to get these clean again?"

"With a lot of will power and some good hard rubbing it can be done,"
Val assured her.

"Well, I'll supply the will power and you may do the rubbing," she
announced pleasantly.

Rupert had opened the remaining packages to display a set of twelve
silver goblets, one with a dented edge, and a queerly shaped vessel not
unlike an old-fashioned gravy-boat. Charity picked this up and examined
it gravely.

"I'm afraid that this is pirate loot." She tapped the lip of the piece
she held. The metal gave off a clear ringing sound. "If I'm not
mistaken, this was stolen from a church. Yes, I'm right; see this cross
under the leaves?" She pointed out the bit of engraving.

"Black Dick's work," agreed Ricky complacently. "But after almost three
hundred years I'm afraid we can't return it. Especially since we don't
know where it came from in the first place."

Val looked about at what they had uncovered. "If you are going to take
all of this in to LeFleur, you'll have to get a truck. D'you know, I
think this place might turn out to be a gold-mine if one knew just where
to dig."

"We haven't found the Luck yet," reminded Ricky.

Val got clumsily to his feet and then gave Charity a hand up, beating
Rupert to it by about three seconds. "As we don't even know whether it
is still in existence, there's no use in hunting for it," Val retorted.

Ricky smiled, that set little smile which usually meant that she neither
agreed with nor approved of the speaker. She got up from the floor and
shook out her skirt purposefully.

"I'll remind you of that some day," she promised.

"I suppose," Rupert glanced at the silver, "this ought to be taken to
town as soon as possible. This house is too isolated to harbor both us
and the si