"Did Harvey Barth tell you just where the money was buried?"
"He said it was buried on the beach. He talked a great deal about it the day before he died, and said, if he ever got well enough, he should go and get it; and then he would pay me handsomely for all I had done for him. I was a nurse in the hospital, you see, and was his only companion. He felt very bad about the loss of his diary, and told me all about it. He said he put it in the flue of the fireplace, because there was no closet in the room. Now, if nobody stole it, the diary must be there yet. I have looked into the flue, but I couldn't see anything of it; and I have made up my mind that it dropped down somewhere."
"The room is directly over this parlor, and if it dropped into the chimney, it must have come down into this fireplace," replied Leopold. "I am sure nothing was ever seen of it."
They examined the flue of the Franklin stove, and Miss Liverage was satisfied with the young man's statement in regard to its construction.
"Some one may have picked it up and put it away," suggested the nurse.
"There was a summer piece fastened into the front of this stove, which was not taken down till I removed it to make the fire when you came. If the diary had been there, I should have found it. But I will search the whole house for it, though I am of Harvey Barth's opinion, that some one stole the book. If any person saw him put it into the flue, as Harvey thought the drummer did, he might have supposed it was something very valuable. Why should he take so much pains to hide it, if it was not? If the drummer did not take it himself, he may have told somebody else, who did steal it. If he had left the diary on the table, nobody would have touched it, I know. It was all because he hid it, that he lost it."
Miss Liverage was sure the diary was still in the house, and during that and the next day, while the storm lasted, Leopold searched the hotel from cellar to garret. He did not find the key to the hidden treasure of High Rock. The nurse searched for herself, so far as she could do so without exciting the suspicions of the hotel people; but she was no more successful than her confidant in the secret. If the diary was in the house, it could not be found. The structure of the chimney, in which the flue of the fireplace was built, was carefully examined; and Leopold's conclusion seemed to be fully verified. Miss Liverage was reluctantly compelled to abandon all hope of finding the coveted volume.
The storm ended, and the sun shone again. The wind came fresh and cold from the north-west. The nurse looked from the windows of the hotel upon the waters of the river, which, sheltered from the force of the blast, were as smooth as an inland pond though the waves rolled up white and angry beyond the point. The guest at the Cliff House, though she had given up all expectation of finding the diary, had not abandoned the hope of obtaining the hidden treasure.
"Now, Leopold, we must go to the beach under High Rock," said she, after the storm was over.
"What is the use of going there, if you don't know where the money is hidden?" demanded the boatman.