"How could he do that?"
"I don't know, my dear. I can't understand these things. She called it 'hush money,' or some such name. There was somebody as didn't want what was in that letter to be known. And Josiah—that's my daughter's husband, dearie—kept on threatening him that he would tell, and then making him pay money to get him to hold his tongue. Carrie said that some day Josiah would sell this man the letter, and get hundreds of pounds for it; but he wanted first to see how much he could get out of him by threatening him, without parting with the letter."
"I wonder what it was about," said Marjorie.
"I don't know, my dear. Carrie didn't know; he wouldn't let her read it. And I've never opened the box, and I couldn't read it if I did."
"Then your daughter did not like what her husband was doing?"
"No; she was frightened, my dear. Mr. Forty Screws was in a great way about losing the letter. See? And Josiah was afraid he would put the 'tectives on them, so that's why they was going out of the country. His sister was going with them, his half-sister she was; she was the one that stole it from Mr. Forty Screws, and they didn't want to take the letter with them, lest the 'tectives should search them, and find it in their boxes. When once they got over to Ameriky they thought they was safe. See? Carrie did cry about it, though, my dear, and she said if she had her way she would give it back to Mr. Forty Screws, and have done with it all."
"What a curious name! Are you sure that it was Forty Screws?"
"Well, something like it, my dear."
"Where is the box?"
"In the cupboard below; one of those little cupboards by the fire."