Chapter XVIII
Found Out
“I dreamed about that old pouch last night,” said Richard in one of the intervals of rest which they allowed themselves.
“I dreamed that it belonged to a Chinese man with crooked, yellow finger-nails a foot long. He came and stood over my bed and said that because there was important news in that letter and we buried it, and kept it from going to where it ought to go, _we_ had to be buried alive. And he picked me up like I was that nut and tossed me over his shoulder, and said, ‘Brother, go find your brother.’ And I began sinking down in the sand deeper and deeper until I began to smother.”
Georgina made no answer. The dream did not impress her as being at all terrifying. She had swung her prism around her neck that morning when she dressed, and now while she rested she amused herself by flashing the bars of color across Captain Kidd. Richard resented her lack of interest.
“Well, it may not sound very bad out here in the daylight, but you ought to have _had_ it. I yelled until Daddy shook me and told me I’d wake up the whole end of town with such a nightmare. If you’d have seen that old Chinaman’s face like a dragon’s, you’d understand why I feel that we’ve just got to find that pouch. It’s going to get us into some kind of trouble, certain sure, if we don’t.”
Georgina rose to begin digging again. “It’s lucky nobody ever comes this way to see all these holes,” she began, but stopped with her shovel half lifted. A familiar voice from the circle of bushes at the top of the dune called down cheerily:
“Ship ahoy, mates. What port are you bound for now? Digging through to China?”
“It’s Uncle Darcy!” they exclaimed in the same breath. He came plunging down the side of the dune before they could recover from their confusion. There was a pail of blueberries in each hand. He had been down the state road picking them, and was now on his way to the Gray Inn to sell them to the housekeeper. Leaving the pails in a level spot under the shade of a scrubby bush, he came on to where the children were standing, and eased himself stiffly down to a seat on the sand. It amused him to see their evident embarrassment, and his eyes twinkled as he inquired:
“What mischief are you up to now, digging all those gopher holes?”