"Oh, no! You mustn't do that! You know it's a secret society, and we aren't going to tell any one about anything in it. And besides—"
"Yes, and besides," put in Jess, "if we tell any one about this book, it might somehow leak out and get back to Sarah what we'd done in breaking the trunk, and then there might be trouble!" She looked meaningly at Bess.
"Oh, no!" assented the latter hastily. "We mustn't tell a soul!" Plainly the twins still lived in dread of the awful threat made so many years ago. They knew that Sarah was even yet fully capable of putting it into execution—under sufficient provocation!
"All right," agreed Corinne. "I won't breathe a word of this, then, and I'll see what I can do to make head or tail of the thing. But, mercy!" glancing at her watch, "it's nearly six o'clock, and I ought to have been home long ago. I'll take the car at the corner, I guess." She hurried into her wraps, gathered up the precious "find" with her school-books, and bade the girls good-by.
"It's been a remarkable afternoon for me!" she declared as she kissed Margaret. "I feel like a real antiquarian now. Hurrah for the Antiquarian Club! Let's have another meeting as soon as I've made some progress with this!" She tapped the old account-book significantly and hurried away.
"Oh!" sighed Margaret, blissfully, settling back in her chair, "this is positively the most wonderful day I ever spent in my life! Can I ever wait for the next meeting?" The twins stood by her chair, looking thoughtful. They too were strangely stirred out of their usual unimaginative selves.
"Well, I confess, I never dreamed of anything so queer happening in this old ranch!" marveled Bess. "It's all Corinne's doings."
That night Mrs. Bronson came home very late from business, but she went in, as was her invariable custom, to peep at her little invalid daughter before she herself retired. To her surprise, she found Margaret still awake.
"Dear, you're not ill, are you?" she inquired anxiously. "You're usually asleep at this time."
But Margaret only laughed a happy little laugh. "No, Mummy, I'm all right,—only just too interested to sleep! Do you remember what you once said about an adventure turning up? Well, it has,—the loveliest kind of a one! But I can't tell you about it, because it's a secret. You won't mind, will you?"