“Yes, very sure—exactly on a line with the footstone, and a little to the right. Oh, no, I could not possibly be mistaken, for there is not room on the other side, you see. There is some mystery here.” She took the spade and began to feel around with it. “It is gone!” she exclaimed. “Some one has stolen it away. I am as sure as of my existence that it has been stolen away.”
“I will dig a little further, and more to the right; you may have gone deeper than you thought.” He threw out a few more spadefuls of earth, but discovered nothing. “There is no box here,” he said at last. “Who could have taken it?”
Lettice was silent a moment; then she said in a tense way, “I think I know. The deceitful wretch! The cowardly spy! I will denounce him before the world.”
At this very moment a shadow fell upon the white footstone. Lettice turned quickly—Robert Clinton stood before them. “There he is!” she cried. “That is he, the spy! No one else saw me, and I do not know how long he may have been watching me.”
“What do you mean?” cried Robert. “Lettice, what do you mean? Of what do you accuse me? A spy? I? Is it possible—”
“It is possible that I have learned the value of fair words alone,” she returned scornfully. “I understand many things now. I understand your confidences with those who, like you, would be willing to play into the hands of our country’s enemies. Yes, I believe you are a spy.”
The young man turned to Mr. Baldwin, who, leaning upon his spade, regarded the two. “Sir,” said Robert, “will you tell me if this young lady is suddenly crazed? Can you explain this to me?”
“Oh, you are very innocent!” Lettice broke in. “Add deceit to deceit. Tell him, Mr. Baldwin, since he is so innocent of the charge. Refresh his memory.”
“Miss Hopkins secreted some valuables in this place,” Mr. Baldwin said, turning to Robert. “We came down here to unearth them, and we find them gone.”
“And you charge me with taking them! Lettice, you can do that? Great Heaven! what do I hear? Lettice, you are but joking. You do not really mean it. This is but one of your tricks.”