As the men held up a little packet which had at last come to light very
near the fireplace, he gave a shriek and stretched out two clutching
hands.
"Let me have it!" he cried. "I know what that is; it disappeared from my
sister's desk five years ago, and I could never get her to tell where
she had put it. Let me have it, and I will open it here before you all.
Indeed I will, sirs--though it is all mine, as I have said before."
But Etheridge, quietly taking it, placed it in his pocket, and Huckins
sank back with a groan.
The next place to be examined was the room upstairs. Here the poor
woman had spent most of her time till she was seized with her last
sickness, and here the box had been found by Huckins, and here they
expected to find the rest of her treasures. But beyond a small casket of
almost worthless jewelry, nothing new was discovered, and they proceeded
at Frank's suggestion to inspect the room where she had died, and where
the clock still stood towards which she had lifted her dying hand, while
saying, "There! there!"
As they approached this place, Huckins was seen to tremble. Catching
Frank by the arm, he whispered:
"Can they be trusted? Are they honest men? She had greenbacks, piles of
greenbacks; I have caught her counting them. If they find them, will
they save them all for me?"
"They will save them all for the heir," retorted Frank, severely. "Why
do you say they are for you, when you know you will only get them in
default of other heirs being found."
"Why? why? Because I feel that they are mine. Heirs or no heirs, they
will come into my grasp yet, and you of the law cannot help it. Do I
look like a man who will die poor? No, no; but I don't want to be
cheated. I don't want these men to rob me of anything which will
rightfully be mine some day."
"You need not fret about that," said Frank. "No one will rob _you_," and
he drew disdainfully aside.
The Appraisers had now surveyed the room awful with hideous memories to
the young lawyer. Pointing to the bed, they said:
"Search that," and the search was made.
A bundle of letters came to light and were handed over to Frank.
"Why did she hide those away?" screamed Huckins. "They ain't money."
Nobody answered him.
The lintels of the windows and doors were now looked into, and the
fireplace dismantled and searched. But nothing was found in these
places, nor in the staring cupboards or beneath the loosened boards.
Finally they came to the clock.
"Oh, let me," cried Huckins, "let me be the first to stop that clock. It
has been running ever since I was a little boy. My mother used to wind
it with her own hands. I cannot bear a stranger's hand to touch it.
My--my sister would not have liked it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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