"No, marm; I don' hardly think they will. That man said they couldn't travel more than thirty miles a day; but they'll be plenty of 'em here to-morrow--to breakfast." He gave a nervous sort of laugh. "Here,--you all come here," said their mistress to the servants. She went to the smoke-house and unlocked it. "Go in there and get down the bacon--take a piece, each of you." A great deal was still left. "Balla, step here." She called him aside and spoke earnestly in an undertone. "Yes'm, that's so; that's jes' what I wuz gwine do," the boys heard him say. Their mother sent the boys out. She went and locked herself in her room, but they heard her footsteps as she turned about within, and now and then they heard her opening and shutting drawers and moving chairs. In a little while she came out. "Frank, you and Willy go and tell Balla to come to the chamber door. He may be out in the stable." They dashed out, proud to bear so important a message. They could not find him, but an hour later they heard him, coming from the stable. He at once went into the house. They rushed into the chamber, where they found the door of the closet open. "Balla, come in here," called their mother from within. "Have you got them safe?" she asked. "Yes'm; jes' as safe as they kin be. I want to be 'bout here when they come, or I'd go down an' stay whar they is." "What is it?" asked the boys. "Where is the best place to put that?" she said, pointing to a large, strong box in which, they knew, the finest silver was kept; indeed, all excepting what was used every day on the table. "Well, I declar', Mistis, that's hard to tell," said the old driver, "without it's in the stable." "They may burn that down." "That's so; you might bury it under the floor of the smoke-house?" "I have heard that they always look for silver there," said the boys' mother. "How would it do to bury it in the garden?" "That's the very place I was gwine name," said Balla, with flattering approval. "They can't burn _that_ down, and if they gwine dig for it then they'll have to dig a long time before they git over that big garden." He stooped and lifted up one end of the box to test its weight. "I thought of the other end of the flower-bed, between the big rose-bush and the lilac." "That's the very place I had in my mind," declared the old man. "They won' never fine it dyah!" "We know a good place," said the boys both together; "it's a heap better than that. It's where we bury our treasures when we play 'Black-beard the Pirate.'" "Very well," said their mother; "I don't care to know where it is until after to-morrow, anyhow. I know I can trust you," she added, addressing Balla. "Yes'm, you know dat," said he, simply. "I'll jes' go an' git my hoe." "The garden hasn't got a roof to it, has it, Unc' Balla?" asked Willy, quietly.