"I didn't know. How could I know? It was that which first made me suspicious of the Marquis. We made up our minds to watch. But that day in the woods—well, I forgot everything in the world but just that I was in love with you."
"Ah!" exclaimed Nancy, flushing.
"But tell me," asked Tom, "What did you find in the cabinet?"
"We found nothing. I began to think that the Marquis had deceived me. I didn't know what to believe. I didn't know what to do. I threatened each day to tell Dan. And then came our walk. When we came in that night—do you recall?—we found the Marquis sitting in the bar before the fire, and I went over and spoke to him."
"Yes, I remember," Tom answered.
"I had made up my mind that I must take you all,—mother and you and Dan,—into my confidence. I told him so. He begged me to wait until the next day and promised that he would tell you then himself. I was beginning to think he might be a little crazy, that there was no hidden treasure."
"I'm sure there is," said Tom. "There was another half of that torn scrap of paper, hidden in one of the cubby-holes of the old cabinet. Dan found it. It's the directions, sure enough, for finding the treasure."
"Ah! but what has it all to do with me?"
"I don't know; something I fancy, or the Marquis would not have told you as much as he did. But here is the other half. You can tell whether it is part of the paper he showed you."
He drew from his pocket the yellowed bit of paper and spread it on the table before them. Nance bent over and examined it closely.