It
was as if--well, as if she gave it to me. I was too badly
frightened to think much about it, as you may imagine. It was a
horrible place, all slime and foul water; the rocks were slippery.
But that coin was in her fingers."
Rosa managed to say: "Impossible! Then she must have had it when
she fell."
"No, no! I saw her hands upstretched, her fingers open, in the
moonlight."
"It's uncanny. Perhaps--"
"Yes. Perhaps some unseen hand led her to the place so that we
should at last come into our own. Who knows? I didn't bother my
head about the matter at first, what with our flight and all, but
now I reason that there must be other coins where this one came
from. There's no doubt that father hid his money. He turned his
slaves into gold, he bought jewels, precious metal, anything he
could hide. Well, perhaps there were old coins in the lot. The
water in the well is shallow; Isabel must have groped this piece
from the bottom. Some day I shall explore the hole and--we shall
see."
Rosa flung her arms rapturously about her brother's neck and
kissed him. "Wouldn't it be glorious?" she cried. "Wouldn't it be
wonderful, to be rich, and to want for nothing; to have fine
clothes and good things to eat once more? Good things to eat!" Her
lip quivered. "Oh--I'm so hungry."
"Poor little girl!"
"Wait till O'Reilly hears about this.
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