In Her Own Right

“Come on!” he said.

They trooped down to the cellar, Croyden leading the way. Moses was off for the evening, they had the house to themselves. As they passed the foot of the stairs, Macloud picked up a mattock.

“Me for the digging!” he said. “Which is the south-east corner, Davila?”

“There, under those boxes!” said she.

They were quickly tossed aside.

“The ground is not especially hard,” observed Macloud, with the first stroke. “I reckon a yard square is sufficient. – At a depth of two feet the memorandum says, doesn’t it?”

No one answered. Fascinated, they were watching the fall of the pick. With every blow, they were listening for it to strike the stones.

“Better get a shovel, Croyden, we’ll need it,” said Macloud, pausing long enough, to throw off his coat… “Oh! I forgot to say, I wired the Pinkerton man to recover the package you buried this morning.”

Croyden only nodded – stood the lamp on a box, and returned with the coal scoop.

“This will answer, I reckon,” he said, and fell to work.

“It seems absurd!” remarked Macloud, between strokes. “To have hunted the treasure, for weeks, all over Greenberry Point, and then to find it in the cellar, like a can of lard or a bushel of potatoes.”

“You haven’t found it, yet,” Croyden cautioned. “And we’ve gone the depth mentioned.”

“No! we haven’t found it, yet! – but we’re going to find it!” Macloud answered, sinking the pick, viciously, in the ground, with the last word.

Crack!

It had struck hard against a stone.

“What did I tell you?” Macloud cried, sinking the pick in at another place.

Crack!

Again, it struck! and again! and again! The fifth stroke laid the stone bare – the sixth and seventh loosened it, still more – the eighth and ninth completed the task.

“Give me the shovel!” said he.

When the earth was away and the stone exposed, he stooped and, putting his fingers under the edges, heaved it out.

“The rest is for you, Croyden!” and stepped aside.

The iron box was found!

For a moment, Croyden looked at it, rather dazedly. Could it be the jewels were there! – within his reach! – under that lid! Suddenly, he laughed! – gladly, gleefully, as a boy – and sprang down into the hole.

The box clung to its resting place for a second, as though it was reluctant to be disturbed – then it yielded, and Croyden swung it onto the bank.

“We’ll take it to the library,” he said, scraping it clean of the adhering earth.

And carrying it before them, like the Ark of the Covenant, they went joyously up to the floor above.

He placed it on the table under the chandelier, where all could see. It was of iron, rusty with age; in dimension, about a foot square; and fastened by a hasp, with the bar of the lock thrust through but not secured.

“Light the gas, Colin! – every burner,” he said. “We’ll have the full effulgence, if you please.”…

For a little time, the lid resisted. Suddenly, it yielded.

“Behold!” he heralded, and flung it back.

The scintillations which leaped out to meet them, were like the rays from myriads of gleaming, glistening, varicolored lights, of dazzling brightness and infinite depth. A wonderful cavern of coruscating splendor – rubies and diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, pearls and opals glowing with all the fire of self, and the resentment of long neglect.

“Heaven! What beauty!” exclaimed Davila.

It broke the spell.

“They are real!” Croyden laughed. “You may touch them – they will not fade.”

They put them out on the table – in little heaps of color. The women exclaiming whene’er they touched them, cooingly as a woman does when handling jewels – fondling them, caressing them, loving them.

At last, the box was empty. They stood back and gazed – fascinated by it all: – the color – the glowing reds and whites, and greens and blues.

“It is wonderful! wonderful!” breathed Elaine.

“It is wonderful – and it’s true!” said Croyden.

Two necklaces lay among the rubies, alike as lapidary’s art could make them. Croyden handed one to Macloud, the other he took.

“In remembrance of your release, and of Parmenter’s treasure!” he said, and clasped it around Elaine’s fair neck.

Macloud clasped his around Davila’s.

“Who cares, now, for the time spent on Greenberry Point or the double reward!” he laughed.