She said she would, and at his request named the price.
Geoffrey dropped a golden coin into her hand, remarking, with a smile, that she could give him the change when he came for the hat, or if he didn’t come by the end of six weeks she would be entitled to the whole of it. He took this way to make these good people a little present without wounding their feelings, for he had no intention of ever returning to Santa Fe.
He was very much depressed by his failure to obtain any definite information regarding his father, and he found it hard to be reconciled to the fact that the ex-postmaster could not remember the name which it was so important he should learn.
He attached very little significance to the finding of the broken cross, for it proved nothing; still he put it carefully away, resolving to keep it as a curious relic.
But it was destined, insignificant as it seemed, to play an important part in the chain of evidence that was eventually to prove his identity.
It was the middle of September when he reached Saratoga again, where he found Mr. and Mrs. Huntress and Gladys, all impatient over his long absence, and overjoyed at his return. They had remained there far beyond the date they had intended, and they had only waited for his coming to go home.
They left immediately and arrived in Brooklyn the twentieth of the month, and were all delighted to be beneath their own “vine and fig tree” once more.
When Geoffrey told Mr. Huntress how fruitless had been his search, except for what he had learned from the Henlys, he replied, as he laid his hand affectionately on the young man’s shoulder:
“For your sake, Geoff, I am sorry, for I know that you are sensitive regarding the subject of your parentage; but for my part, my boy, I am content, for I am free to own that I should feel a trifle jealous of any other man who should claim you and occupy the place of a father toward you.”
All this was very pleasant to Geoffrey, but he knew that nothing would ever satisfy him until he could learn the whole secret; and he was now convinced that there was a carefully guarded secret regarding his birth.