"Strange that this same angel of thine comes not back from the island!" remarked Tonie, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Only think, my Blonda, what it would be if, after all, he had played us false, and gone off with the—"
"Tonie! For shame! How canst thou?" said the little girl indignantly. "Think but how faithful, how loyal he has been for years to our pastor! And besides, Tonie, would God have sent us a bad angel in answer to our prayer? Nay—if our earthly parents, as Jesus says, could never give us a stone when we ask for bread, is it likely that the loving Father in Heaven would send us a curse instead of a blessing, when we cried to Him for help? Nay, Tonie, I have full faith in poor Freskel, and I would answer for his honesty with my life."
"Poor Freskel thanks and blesses thee for that, Blonda!" said a low voice in her ear, and turning quickly, she saw Freskel, who had approached unobserved and unheard.
The little girl looked up at him in wonder, for his face was full of excitement, with great eyes that shone like lamps under his streaming locks.
"The bag of coin—is it safe, Freskel?" asked Tonie.
"Safe!" laughed the youth. "Oh yes! So safe that none save Freskel could ever find it; though, after all, a bag of treasure more or less—what matters it, when untold wealth lies ready for the finding."
"Thou wert absent a long time, Freskel," said Blonda gently. "Tell us, was it so hard to find a place wherein the bag could be hidden safely?"
But Freskel did not appear to hear. A strange, triumphant look lighted up his face, as he stood gazing out across the water at the Isle of Ghosts, which reared its rugged points under the moonlight, clothed in a weird and spectral splendour.
"Who said I could not keep a secret?" he murmured at last, in a strange, sing-song voice. "The winds of heaven say not whence they come nor whither they go; the flowers have no words to tell us who paints their cheeks, and tints their eyes, and unfolds their leaflets one by one. They keep their secrets, and Freskel keeps his."
"But surely thou wilt tell the dear pastor—wilt thou not—where his friend's money lies hidden?" questioned Tonie.