really concealed a rich gold ledge,--actually
tunneled and galleried by him secretly in the past,--and its only other
outlet was an opening in the garden hidden by a stone which turned on a
swivel. Its existence had been unknown to Sobriente's successor, but
was known to the Kanaka who had worked with Sobriente, who fled with
his daughter after the murder, but who no doubt was afraid to return
and work the mine. He had imparted the secret to Starbuck, another
half-breed, son of a Yankee missionary and Hawaiian wife, who had
evidently conceived this plan of seeking Buena Vista with an accomplice,
and secretly removing such gold as was still accessible. The accomplice,
afterwards identified by Larry as the wandering tramp, failed to
discover the secret entrance FROM the garden, and Starbuck was
consequently obliged to attempt it from the hotel--for which purpose
he had introduced himself as a boarder--by opening the disused well
secretly at night. These facts were obtained from papers found in the
otherwise valueless trunks, weighted with stones for ballast, which
Starbuck had brought to the hotel to take away his stolen treasure in,
but which he was obliged to leave in his hurried flight. The attempt
would have doubtless succeeded but for Polly's courageous and timely
interference!

And now that they had told her ALL, they only wanted to know what had
first excited HER suspicions, and driven her to seek the well as the
object of Starbuck's machinations? THEY had noticed her manner when she
entered the house that night, and Starbuck's evident annoyance. Had she
taxed him with her suspicions, and so discovered a clue?

It was a terrible temptation to Polly to pose as a more perfect heroine,
and one may not blame her if she did not rise entirely superior to it.
Her previous belief, that the head of the accomplice at the opening of
the garden was that of a GHOST, she now felt was certainly in the way,
as was also her conduct to Starbuck, whom she believed to be equally
frightened, and whom she never once suspected! So she said, with a
certain lofty simplicity, that there were SOME THINGS which she really
did not care to talk about, and Larry and her father left her that night
with the firm conviction that the rascal Starbuck had tried to tempt her
to fly with him and his riches, and had been crushingly foiled. Polly
never denied this, and once, in later days, when admiringly taxed with
it by Larry, she admitted with dove-li