While she was still admiring it, Peggy picked up the filigree necklace. “This is the daintiest piece of all, I think,” she remarked.
“And this is the most beautiful, according to my notion,” smiled Florence, pointing to a bracelet of old gold set with sapphires and tiny diamonds. “The sapphire is my birthstone.”
Señor Rodriguez was much pleased by the girls’ admiration. “De people of my country are ver’ artistic,” he said. “Dey make many beautiful t’ings.”
“To whom do you think all these jewels and things belong?” Jo Ann asked. “And why were they put in that room under the church?”
“Mees Jo, I do not know. I am ver’ sorry dat I cannot answer you dat. I have heard dat long ago in de wars de people carried der most valuable t’ings to de church for safe keeping. I may be able to find out who owns dese from de papers.”
“I’m sure these jewels are very valuable,” Dr. Blackwell remarked in Spanish to the Señor. “I’m away so much that I don’t like to leave the girls alone with them in the house. Would you take charge of them till you find out to whom they belong?”
Señor Rodriguez nodded. “Yes, if you wish, doctor. I will be glad to take them and put them in my safe till I find out to whom they belong.”
CHAPTER XVII
THE SEÑOR’S STORY
In the days that followed the discovery of the papers and jewels the girls were all impatience to hear from Señor Rodriguez. Jo Ann especially was restless. Always she had disliked inaction, and now she wanted to find out everything “right straight away.” She failed to realize that the Señor was having to search through scores of old city records for information, and that, like a true Spaniard, he was thorough—painstakingly accurate in every detail.
Again and again the three girls talked over that eventful night and the unanswered questions—Why had those things been hidden in that underground room? Why had no one found them before? To whom did they belong?