“I do know something about ores and minerals, my dear, for before I was a newspaper man I was a clerk in the office of an expert in such matters. I should greatly like to see your sample,” he answered, readily.
So she led the way at once and took the key from a desk drawer, which anybody might have opened, and Ninian remarked:
“What an insecure place for a safe key! Yours is certainly a most confiding household.”
“Oh, it’s not a very safe safe, anyway,” she answered, laughing; “and who would want to open it? It’s Ephraim’s really, though I don’t think he’s ever been near it since he came home. Isn’t it a great, clumsy key? But my father told me that there are safes much, much larger and stronger than this which are opened by very small keys. Odd, isn’t it?” 182 As she spoke she was down upon her knees in front of the strong box and trying with all her small strength to turn the lock; and after watching her for a moment the reporter laughed, and suggested:
“Suppose you just merely pull at the knob. It looks to me as if the thing were already opened, for the door isn’t tight; or is that protruding edge of it a part of the general crudeness?”
Jessica obeyed, pulling with such unnecessary force that the safe flew open and he fell backward, laughing.
But Mr. Sharp did not laugh. In view of what had been told him he was afraid the thing had been tampered with, and watched in silence while the little girl thrust her hand into the safe and felt all about, her face lengthening as she did so; but again, suddenly brightening, when she exclaimed:
“Oh, my mother must have done that! There was all the money in here that was left after Elsa got her own share. The first nights two of the ‘boys’ slept in the house to watch, ’cause mother was afraid we might lose it again. Then, since ‘Forty-niner’ got home only he has slept here, and he generally ‘bunks’ on the lounge in this very office. That’s what it is, what it must be. My mother has worried about Antonio, and has taken the money and the piece of copper away and put them somewhere else. Well, never mind. She’ll show it to you as soon as she comes back; and now, what shall we do next? Would you like to ride?”
Ninian passed his hand across his brow in mild perplexity. An instant conviction had seized him that here was another feature of the mysteries pervading this peaceful ranch; and though he as instantly frowned upon his own suspicion, it would 183 remain to torment him. However, he said nothing further to disturb Jessica’s composure, and readily agreed that a ride would be delightful, though he added, grimly:
“I’m so lame and stiff already from yesterday’s horseback exercise that I feel older than Ephraim. I expect a ‘hair of the same dog’ is the best cure, and wish now I had made time, back there in town, to get used to a saddle. I never found it convenient, though, and poor Nimrod missed his outings even more than I did, I fancy. It certainly is a glorious day for a canter, as almost all our days are.”