"Morton," I said, and laid my quivering hand
upon his arm, "the time has come to act. Come help me to secure my
treasure." He rose silently to obey me.
I touched the spring of the mirror; it swung silently open, and revealed
to the astonished old man a square niche built in the wall--unsuspected
before by him--in which fitted an iron chest, the existence of which he
had never dreamed of until now. But the contents were gone--gone since
yesterday! The chest was empty, with its lid propped open. There was not
even a paper within.
With a bitter groan I tottered back against the wall, while the cold dew
stood on my brow, and my limbs trembled under me. This was indeed
despair!
"What ails you, Miss Miriam?" he asked, with an expression of anguish
upon his kind, old, quivering face. "Do you miss any thing--what have
you lost, Miss Miriam?"
"You left your post, Morton," I said, at last, "and this is the
consequence--I have lost every thing! Old man! old friend! did you
think I charged you to watch every one who came, so earnestly, to stay
here so constantly, without a good and sufficient reason? Some one has
been here before us--my gold is gone! we are ruined, Morton!"
CHAPTER VIII.
Whatever my flash of conviction might have been, all suspicions against
Evelyn must have been allayed by the manner in which she received the
information of the loss of the deposits behind the mirror.
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