"It must be lovely," she sighed, "to have a father like that!"
CHAPTER XV
SARAH TAKES A HAND IN THE GAME
Corinne came rushing home with the girls next day. Margaret, who rather expected her, had been waiting in considerable impatience, and not a little secret dread, for her arrival.
"Girls," she panted, throwing aside her wraps, "it's all right! I had the loveliest time telling Father all about it last night! You've no idea how perfectly absorbed he was in the story! He was like a boy listening to a pirate yarn! I read him all the translation of the journal that Margaret made me, and he was just about wild when it came to the end so abruptly. He thought, with me, that it was best not to take the original from here, because you never can tell what accident might happen to it, carrying it around, but he says he ought to see it at once.
"And, do you know, he said we'd done very clever work indeed, in puzzling out what we had of this mystery all by ourselves! I was so proud! And he said, also, that Alexander deserves special credit for the work he did in finding the secret beam. It isn't every boy who would have had such a good idea. He says Alexander is going to make a bright man, and a prosperous one, too, some day! Where is that youngster, by the way? I want to tell him!"
"Oh, he hasn't come in yet!" exclaimed Margaret, hastily returning to the main subject. "But tell us, Corinne, what else did your father say?"
"Well, I haven't half told you yet! To begin with, he says that we have really stumbled on something very valuable indeed—just as I told you! This journal ought to make one of the most interesting additions to the curiosities of history that have come to light in many a long day. And he says he shouldn't wonder but what it would be very valuable from the money side, too. There are people and institutions that will pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for rare manuscripts like that, if they're genuine! And there's no doubt but that this is genuine, all right! And he says we may be able to think out where the signet was hidden, too.