“Perhaps he had the offer made to him yesterday, only did not feel disposed to take it then,” put in Pam. Then, mindful of the long time they had been lingering, she said: “We must go now, Mrs. Buckle, but one of us will be over to-morrow to see how you are getting on, and if you want us before that, just send Amanda to Ripple to fetch us.”
“You can’t go yet; I must know about this,” said Mrs. Buckle, indicating the watch in her hand. “Then I want to pay your brother the value of it.”
“Oh, Jack would not take money for it!” cried Pam. “Especially after that most hateful thing said by Mose Paget, about Grandfather having stolen it and given it to Jack.”
“Of course I don’t want to be paid for what was not my own,” agreed Jack; but he was sore at heart all the same, for he had valued that watch very highly. It was such a substantial affair, and it made him feel as if he were almost, if not quite a man.
Mrs. Buckle laughed.
“Do you think I am really as hard up as I would have Mose Paget believe?” she asked, and her voice dropped to a cautious undertone. “It is quite true I have almost no money in the house, and I have kept none there ever since that mysterious theft from Ripple leaked out. But there are other places in which to keep money. You tell me how much this watch is worth to you, then go into the house and sit down while I find the cash, do you hear?”
“Yes, but I am not going to do it,” said Jack hurriedly. “Come along, Pam, it is time we were marching.”
The two marched off in spite of Mrs. Buckle’s protestations, and when they were well on their way Jack turned to Pam, demanding: “What do you think now?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she answered sadly.
“I think that you are all working on a wrong idea, and that poor old Grandfather was as innocent as I am of any hand in hurting Sam Buckle!” Jack’s voice had a confident, happy ring that was most inspiring. He had a host of theories, too, and he treated Pam to so many of them on the way back to Ripple that she arrived at home almost disposed to believe he might be right; only the circumstantial evidence of the axe being found near to Sam Buckle, and that other still more damaging fact of her grandfather’s disappearance, were so hard to explain away.