It aggravated John that she should pause and peep behind her, to be sure the windows were still covered.
“The spirit of what tomfoolery has possessed you, mother, I’d like to know? What’s the use of 87 scarin’ folks half to death? As if we hadn’t had enough things happen without your cuttin’ up, too!”
“Hold your tongue, John Benton, you sassy boy. As sure as I’m alive, I saw the ghost of Antonio Bernal peeking in at that open window afore I shut it. He was so white I couldn’t tell him from paper, and so thin I ’peared to see clean through him.”
“Pshaw, mother! You’re overtired, and for once in your life really nervous. I reckon it’s the sight of more money than ever come your way before. Well, forget it. ’Tisn’t yours nor mine. We’ve no cause to worry. I’ll step and get you a drink of water and then you’ll feel all right, and would better go to bed.”
“I don’t want water, and I shan’t go to bed. I shan’t close my eyes this night, John Benton, and you needn’t touch to tell me so.”
“All right. Stay awake if you like. It’s nothing to me,” answered the exasperated man, who, in spite of his strong common sense, had been more startled than he cared to admit, even to himself. But, glancing at Mrs. Trent and Jessica, he now felt that it would be wiser to express his own fear, which was of nothing supernatural.
“Mother’s upset, ‘admiral,’ and don’t you let her upset you, too. The fact is, we’re a very careless set at Sobrante, where everything is––or used to be––all open and above board. It’s a new thing for keys to be turned on this ranch, and it’s a new thing for us to go suspecting one another of sneak notions. I, for one, am ashamed enough of the way I’ve felt about old Ephraim Marsh, and if he don’t show up pretty soon, I’ll make a special trip 88 to Los Angeles to tell him so. Even if I have to foot it the heft of the way.
“Howsomever, all the world ain’t as honest as them that had the honor of knowin’ Cassius Trent. There’s been a power of strangers on these premises durin’ these last days; and it stands to reason that among ’em one villain might have crept in. I ain’t sayin’ there was. I’ll never accuse nobody again––’cept––’cept–––”
Here the honest fellow interrupted himself with a laugh; remembering his ingrained suspicion of the two Bernals, which he would never even try to overcome. But he went on again:
“Mother thinks she’s seen somethin’, and like enough she has. There might be some scamp hangin’ around; and if there was, and he looked through that window and saw all this gold, I don’t wonder his face was ghosty-lookin’, nor––Somebody stop me talking and answer this: Where’s the safest place to stow that pile?”