"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 thing 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?"
"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.