still
there she would not be able to get it. It was no use raising her hopes,
just to disappoint her. I would try to get the money before I spoke, I
decided.

She came at eleven the next morning, and timidly produced a few little
sketches, mostly copies of things. I'd like to say that they were good,
but I can't. It was just schoolgirl painting, nothing else. She wanted
to give me some, but I wouldn't hear of that. She had sold a few for
eighteenpence apiece, she said. I said that I wanted four to frame for
ships' cabins, and I'd give twelve-and-six for them, and that would
leave me a fair margin. I was afraid to offer more, for fear she would
suspect me; and as it was she was dubious.

"You're sure you _will_ get a profit?" she asked.

"You ask anyone round here about me," I said. "They'll soon tell you
that I look out sharp for that. They'll look very nice when they're
framed; and I make a good bit out of the frames, you see. Now about this
ditty-box. I've got on the track of one that might turn out right; but
there's a difficulty that I'd like to put to you. Suppose that there's
no money in it, only a clue to where your father hid it. Wouldn't that
be likely to be somewhere where you can't get at it? On board his ship,
for example? Or in your old house?

"If it's in the house," she said, "I could get in. At least it was empty
a week ago. Mother heard from an old neighbor. But perhaps it would be
better to get someone else to go, and say that they wanted to look at
the house?" She glanced at me doubtfully.

"You mean me?" She nodded slowly. "You are afraid that I might keep some
of it?"

She stared at me in sheer amazement.

"Why, of course not!" she cried. "I was only thinking that it was a long
way to ask you to go; and that I must not impose on your kindness."

"Give me the address," I said, "in case I should want it any time."

She gave me an address in Andeville. Then I changed the subject. I
walked part of the way home with her. Then I had my dinner and went off
to Andeville.

It was about an hour by train. By the time that I had found the agent
and got the key it was growing dusk. I was some time arguing with him,
because he wanted to send a man with me to lock up afterward. "We've had
tramps get in several times," he explained, "and they've done a lot of
damage; torn up the flooring and such senseless mischief." It occurred
to me directly that the tramps were some of the men who had come after
the