“This is it, Grace, and here are the notes I made of what Mr. Petersen told me. I haven’t read the writing in Mr. Petersen’s diary—I haven’t had the heart or the inclination to do so. I feel like a thief.”
“Elfreda!” rebuked Grace.
“Then you think I have a right to keep this—this thing?”
“Why not? You say he has no family, no relatives. What you have shown me is, in reality, the will of a dying man. He gave you what he had in payment for your kindness to him. So far as his story of finding the lost mine is concerned, I am inclined to think it a myth. At any rate, don’t trouble your head over the matter any more. The chances are that, even if the mine really exists, we never shall find it, but when Tom joins us in the Cascades I will lay the facts before him. Tom knows this country pretty well. That is why the Government is employing him to make a timber survey, and at the same time, to look into some other matters.”
“But, Grace, this is going to be a terrible weight on my mind,” protested Elfreda.
“And you a successful lawyer!” laughed Grace. “I never thought that a lawyer could be so conscientious. And think of the romance of all this,” went on Grace Harlowe with growing enthusiasm. “Have you no romance in your soul?”
Miss Briggs shook her head.
“It is not given to many girls to play a leading part in a search for a lost gold mine. Even the suggestion of courting peril ought to appeal to you, Elfreda. I should like to go through the diary with care. I don’t like doing that now when we can’t see about us, as we have reason to believe that there may be people in this vicinity who would stop at nothing to obtain possession of it. Of course, we are safe here, though. What about the bag of nuggets and dust that Petersen gave you?”
“I have the bag. The contents I threw away.”
“Elfreda Briggs!” cried Grace indignantly. “Threw away a bag of gold nuggets and gold dust! Are you crazy?”