When he had crawled outward so far that he could lift himself upright, the sailor leaped so high that Ninian felt as if he were the one who had gone “queer” instead of Jessica, suspected. But this reason was obvious; for there in his hand was the veritable black tin box familiar to the girl from her earliest memory, and seen often enough by the herder to be instantly recognized.
When, at last, the box was in her own hands Jessica became very quiet, though her voice still trembled as she said:
“This belongs to my mother. It is for her to open it.”
“No, captain.”
“Not so, Jessica. If the deed for which she looked were not there it would be but a fresh distress to her. You look. It is your interest as well as hers, and if it is not there you can save her, at least, one disappointment on this day of your return.”
The opinions of her two friends prevailed; and, since they had no key, Samson’s great knife forced the lock, and stored within were papers and vouchers of great value to Sobrante, which the faithless manager had carried away for his own purposes.
The deed? Ah, yes. There it lay at the very bottom of the pile, and Jessica knew it at once for the queer paper which her father had shown her on the night before his death.
For a time she could only weep over it and caress it, remembering the dear hands which had held it before her, and the unforgotten voice which had explained its value and all about the necessary “recording” which must be made. Then she rallied, remembering, also, that other precious parent, alive and waiting for her and it.
“Keep you the box, Samson. I, myself, must keep and carry this.”
She fastened it within her blouse and kept one hand upon it all the rest of the way. A brief and happy way, which ended in a mother’s arms and in the wild welcome of every dweller at Sobrante. And when the mother’s arms set their recovered treasure free for a moment there were all the “boys” ready and waiting to seize and carry her from point to point, telling how careful had been each one’s stewardship and how they would never let her go again. Never.