margaret was far from well, even for her. for two weeks she had been ailing, and appeared weak and listless. corinne was not very much surprised on coming in one afternoon to find her no longer in her wheel-chair by the parlor window, but upstairs in bed in her room on the second floor. this had never happened before since the day that corinne had first visited the little house in charlton street, and her heart misgave her as she climbed the stairs with the twins. but she entered the room, assuming a cheerfulness she was far from feeling.
"taking a vacation in bed, honey? well, i don't blame you, in such wretched weather! it was sleeting and freezing as i came in, and the walking is simply abominable. how cozy210 you are here with another open fire! you seem to have one in every room. i wish we did!"
margaret greeted her with something of her old animation, but presently relapsed into listlessness again. corinne chatted on for a time, as though nothing out of the ordinary were the matter:
"i've got some news from the latest member of the antiquarian club! he has a proposition to make. he says that when the first nice spring weather comes, he's going to invite the club to a series of 'antiquarian outings.' they're to take place every pleasant saturday afternoon. he will have a big, comfy automobile come here, and we're all to pile in,—margaret in the comfiest place of all,—and we're going to 'do' old new york—the real, historic parts, i mean. one day we'll take a run up to van cortlandt manor, and see that place, which was washington's headquarters at one time. then another day we'll do the lower part of the city, and have lunch at fraunces' tavern. and, oh! he's211 planned a lot of things like that. it's going to be great fun, i tell you!"
but margaret failed to be roused to any extent even by this delightful prospect, though the twins were thoroughly enthusiastic. at last, when bess and jess had gone downstairs to investigate the refreshment proposition, corinne determined to fathom, if possible, the curious apathy that seemed so new to margaret.
"honey, dear," she crooned, sitting on the bed-side and putting her face down by margaret, "something's bothering you, and i want you to tell me what it is! something's troubling your mind. can't you tell me about it, dear, even if you haven't any one else?"
margaret raised herself on her elbow and faced corinne. "yes, something is bothering me," she acknowledged, "and no one but you has seemed to notice it. but i'm going to tell you, corinne, because i love you, and i haven't any secrets from you. i'm just worried sick because that journal was destroyed! it was my fault. i'm responsible for it all!212 it might have been very valuable, and been sold for a good deal of money. and that would have helped mother a lot, because we're not very well off, and she has to work awfully hard!"
"but, margaret," exclaimed corinne, "this is all nonsense! of course, it's unfortunate that the thing happened, but you can't even blame sarah, for she didn't know it was anything of value, and she thought she was acting for the best, and saving you from getting sick. nobody's to blame! it's just one of those unlucky things that happen sometimes. it isn't as if you or any one else had been careless about it!"
"but you don't understand me!" insisted margaret. "it was my fault, because i kept insisting that this thing should be a secret, and nobody else was to be told. it was terribly foolish—i can see that plainly now! and i never should have kept such a valuable thing in such an insecure place. we ought to have shown it at once to your father and let him keep it. oh, i'll never forgive myself—never,213 never!" she turned her face into the pillows and lay a long time silent,—not crying, but just in an apathy of self-reproach.
corinne, meanwhile, argued and pleaded and consoled—in vain. margaret would neither look up nor respond. and at last, in despair, she exclaimed:
"margaret, i want to tell you something father said last night. it may make you feel better about this very thing. he said that even though the original journal was destroyed, that didn't alter the fact that we youngsters had made a most remarkable 'find,' and had discovered a mystery that was well worth tracking to its finish. he says he's proud to be a member of the antiquarian club, and hopes you haven't let any one else into the secret. he wants it kept quiet till we've fathomed the riddle, if we ever do! you haven't told any one yet, have you?"
margaret raised her head, at this, with a faint spark of interest. "no, i haven't even told mother," she said, "because i hated to have her know how near we'd been to finding214 something valuable, and then disappointing her by saying it was lost. of course, we've told her all about your father's visit, and she thought he was so kind to take such an interest in us. she said she supposed it was for your sake. sarah has never said another word, even to me, about the things she burned up. i think she's half ashamed of it, and yet feels that she really did right in taking away something that she supposed was hurting me. she's awfully worried because i don't seem so well, and she's almost killing herself taking care of me and doing all her other work, too. but, corinne, did your father say he'd really like this all kept a secret still? that's awfully nice of him, and makes what i did seem not quite so foolish! i believe i'll feel a little better about it from now on!"
margaret certainly appeared to improve in spirits after this interview, but still her bodily strength did not return, and day after day she remained confined to her bed. her mother and sarah grew almost ill themselves with anxiety about her. the doctor said it was the215 drain of the winter on her frail system, and prescribed a strong tonic, but even this did not seem to have the desired effect. but corinne came in one day with news that actually brought a tint of pale pink to the little invalid's white cheeks.
"father's been doing some tall thinking lately," she announced, "and this is the result. he wants me to submit the matter to the antiquarian club for due consideration, and would like every member present when i do so. where are the others?"
the twins and alexander were promptly gathered into margaret's room, and corinne continued:
"this is what father's been puzzling over. he says that sapphire signet must have been a very valuable thing, and it ought to be found, if there's the slightest possibility of finding it. he knows a lot about precious stones and their history, and he says that a sapphire signet, especially an old one, is a very rare thing. the reason is that sapphires are so hard that it's very difficult to engrave them, and so signets216 were not very often made of them. so, if this signet were found, it would probably be worth a great deal of money. but, more than that, he thinks we owe it as a duty to the memory of little alison to make some effort, at least, to find it and restore it to her descendants or family, if she has any left."
"that's what i've always thought, too!" murmured margaret, parenthetically.
"well, he says he's been doing some 'sherlock holmes' thinking, and trying to imagine where she could possibly have concealed that trinket. he doesn't think she kept it hidden about herself anywhere. she would probably have thought that too dangerous, for she might have been searched. and he can't bring himself to think that she concealed it anywhere about the house or in the grounds,—there would have been such slight chance, in such a case, of it ever getting back to bermuda, or her relatives ever having a chance to find it. but he did wonder whether it might have been hidden in the secret beam with the other half217 of the journal. you would surely have found it, then, wouldn't you, alexander?"
"bet your life!" replied that youngster, promptly. "if that dinky little do-dab had been in there, yours truly would have cabbaged it all right! i knew well enough it was my last chance at that old dump, and i clawed over every square inch of it a dozen times before i rung off. no sirree! it wasn't there, and you can take your uncle dudley's word for it!"
"then we'll count that out," went on corinne. "father didn't think there was much likelihood of it—only a remote possibility. then there remain only two other possibilities, and he thinks the most likely one was—the old leather covers of the journal!"
"oh, why did we never think of it ourselves!" cried margaret excitedly. then, a moment later, with the droop of disappointment to her mouth: "but if that's so, then it's gone forever—thanks to sarah! she had a red-hot fire that day, i know, and the thing218 would have dropped in the ashes and never been found in the world!"
"but how could the signet have been hidden in the cover?" queried bess, skeptically. "it must have been rather bulky, and we never saw any evidence of such a thing!"
"no," corrected corinne, "father says the signet was probably rather flat, and if alison was at all clever, she could easily have slid it under the lining of one of the covers (which were very thick, if you remember) and pasted it up so it would never be noticed. he says he's known of stranger things than that being done. anyhow, he thinks that is the place in which she would have been most likely to hide it. and if she did, of course, we have no hope of ever finding it now. but there's one other possibility—and that's our 'last chance'!"
"oh, what is it?" they all demanded, as she came to a provoking pause.
"the little hair-trunk!"
margaret raised herself in bed and shouted feebly, "hurrah!" and then added, "but how in the world are we ever to get at it?"
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"that's just the point!" added corinne. "he says we must devise a way of getting at that trunk, somehow, and since you all are better acquainted with sarah and her vagaries than he is, he leaves it to you to concoct some plan. if you can't think of any other way, we'd better tell your mother, and have her order sarah to unlock the attic. but of course that would spoil our secret society, and we won't try that except as a last resort."
"i have an idea!" cried margaret, suddenly. "i'll ask mother to-night about the trunk, and beg her to let me have it to keep some of my books and things in, because i've taken a fancy to it. i'm sure she won't refuse me. and if she orders sarah to let me have the trunk, sarah'll just have to do it!"
they all agreed that the plan looked exceedingly hopeful, and corinne left for home with the assurance that the trunk would soon be theirs to search from end to end.
but when margaret came to talk it over with her mother that night, she met with an unexpected objection.
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"dear heart," said mrs. bronson, "you know that i'd do everything in my power to grant you any reasonable wish, but don't you see that your request is a rather inconvenient one at present? you know that you haven't been really well for some time, and sarah has been working very, very hard taking care of you days—and nights too, often. she's very tired now and has been rather ill-humored lately. now, i don't know just what she keeps in that little trunk, but i'm perfectly sure that, if i ask her to empty it and change things about in the attic, she won't take it very pleasantly and may make an awful fuss! and we can't afford to have her get upset and leave just now, can we, dear?"
margaret ruefully agreed, and had to be satisfied with her mother's assurance that perhaps, when she got better, and household matters had smoothed out, sarah might be approached on the subject.
but this arrangement did not at all suit the rest of the antiquarian club when they held a solemn council next day.
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"suffering simpson!" exploded alexander. "if we wait for that hunk o' misery, sarah, to get in a good humor, we'll wait until horse-radish tastes good on your ice-cream! nix on that!"
"well, what are we going to do, then?" demanded the others, despairingly.
"just you leave it to yours truly!" announced alexander. "i've got a little scheme!"
"quick! tell us what it is!"
alexander gave an impudent wink, and remarked casually: "i'm going to nose out where sarah keeps the key to the attic!"
"splendid!" cried corinne. "and what then?"
"then—" he finished dramatically, "we're going to have a grand old meeting of the club some day when she's out, and rip the stuffing out of that trunk!"
it had seemed a simple thing, when alexander announced his plan, and every one supposed it would soon be accomplished. but it turned out to be a harder task than even222–224 he had anticipated. with infinite caution he searched sarah's room and all her belongings when he knew she was safe in the kitchen, and the twins aided him by keeping guard on the stairs. but the key was not there. next, one night when all the household was abed, he crept down and inspected every shelf and cubbyhole and possible or impossible receptacle in the kitchen and pantry. neither was it there. margaret declared that she knew sarah did not carry it in her pocket, nor did she appear to have anything hanging round her neck.
"then that lallypaloozer must have swallowed it!" affirmed alexander, angrily. "but i'll make one more grand hunt in her room this afternoon, if the twins will help me out by watching the stairs. maybe i overlooked something!"
penknife
he began to tap the inside of the trunk all over, carefully, with the
handle of his penknife
half an hour later he burst into margaret's room with a whoop. "call a meeting of the whole club for next thursday afternoon—it's sarah's day out!" he whispered jubilantly. "i found it!"
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"oh, where, where?" demanded margaret, scarcely believing it could be true.
"in the toe of one of her old shoes!"
on the last thursday afternoon of each month it was sarah's custom to go out by herself for three or four hours, leaving the house and margaret in charge of the twins. this was the only outing she ever took. on the day in question it was understood that corinne and her father (who insisted on being present at this important meeting) should arrive at three-thirty—after sarah had gone, or she might, on seeing them, change her mind and stay home! alexander was then to filch the key from her shoe, open the attic, and, with the help of the twins, carry the trunk down to margaret's room.
everything worked smoothly. sarah departed as usual, mr. cameron and corinne arrived, tingling with excitement, alexander opened the attic, and the wonderful old trunk was at last deposited in triumph before margaret's bed. they turned out the family's226 summer flannels carefully, that no spot or wrinkle on them might in the future disturb the equilibrium of the uncertain sarah, and examined the false bottom with an actual thrill to think that here, in this very spot, poor frightened little alison was wont to conceal the telltale journal.
but when the false bottom was removed, there appeared no trace of a jewel (as they had all secretly hoped there might be) nor any crack or crevice where it might be concealed. the old-fashioned lining was absolutely intact. margaret gave a little sigh of disappointment, but mr. cameron remarked:
"don't be discouraged! we haven't finished yet!" and he began to tap the inside of the trunk all over, carefully, with the handle of his penknife. then, suddenly, they beheld him open the knife and skilfully slip up the figured lining far in one corner. in another second he had inserted his fingers in the opening and was feeling about eagerly. the next moment he laid something in margaret's lap, with just this quiet remark:
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"at last, miss president! the sapphire signet!"
there was an instant of amazed silence. then, at an indistinct sound from downstairs, bess uttered a horrified cry:
"merciful goodness! sarah's come back already! what shall we do!"
