"And this is for you, sis, from the same source."
Pearl opened her box with trembling hands, and took from a velvet case a necklace of pearls.
"Mr. Rossmore was determined to pay me after all," said Will.
"But, my son, tell us about these superb presents," Mrs. Raymond said.
"I will, mother, and it is a long, strange story," and the Boy Detective told the story of his travels.
"We cannot give these presents back, can we, Will, for they ill become Pearl and I in our poverty," said Mrs. Raymond.
"No, mother, for it would deeply offend good Mr. Rossmore, and he was determined to repay me in some way; but I intend to be rich some day, and then your presents won't be amiss; but, mother, did you say that you knew Mr. Rossmore?"
"I said, Will, that I knew a gentleman once of that name," and the woman hastily wiped away a tear.
"But, mother, the strangest of all, and which I forgot to tell you, was the story he told me about his home, and how his wife's cousin and adopted sister had treated the farmer I saved from the robbers.
"And the view of his home was just like the painting you gave Colonel Ivey, and I seemed to recognize it as soon as I saw it, while both the farmer, Mr. Kent Lomax—"