“It belongs to a very substantial fairy, Matt; but I don’t think that to-day I will mention that fairy’s name. Did you ever see so much, money in all your life before, Matt?”
She shook her head, but her eyes were still fixed upon the gold.
“I see,” observed Brinkley flippantly, “the sight of that gold fascinates you. Well, so it did me at first; but you see what use does. I can regard it now with comparative calmness. However, I have a particular wish to accustom you to the sight of wealth; therefore I shall bring you here and show you this now and again. Come, Matt, tell me what you would do if you were very rich—if all this flotsam and jetsam, in fact, belonged to you.”
Without the slightest hesitation Matt replied—
“I should give it to you—leastways, half of it.”
“Ah! the reply is characteristic, and clearly shows you are not at present fitted to become the possessor of riches. But I shall bring you to the proper state of mind in time, no doubt. The next time I ask you a similar question you will propose to give me a third, the next an eighth, and so on, until you will finally come to a proper state of mind, and decline to give me any at all. And now that I have made you the sharer of my secret, we will go.”
They left the cave once more, and made their way back across the sand-hills, Brinkley pausing to obliterate their footprints as they went. When they had proceeded some distance he paused, and took the girl’s hand.
“Good-bye, Matt,” said he. “If it wasn’t for that promised thrashing, I should certainly see you home.”
“Then do,” returned Matt. “I don’t care if he does smash me!”
“Probably not; but I do. It would be an episode in your career which it would not be pleasant to reflect upon—therefore, goodbye, Matt, and—and God bless you, my girl!”