Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-06
covered with dust and aue, met the crisp

covered with dust and iue, met the crisp
| crackle of firm paper.
"Ahl' was Maud's quick little cry.
! The paper was out before the light of the
summer sun. Thin, grey-hued paper,
tightly pressed once, but now, by some in
| herent strength, surely loosening from its
pressure and elastically unfolding itself
One fold-some printed words and fig
ures. Bah How dusty it was Another
| fold undone some foreign words quite
clear, Z" DItalia." What was it?
Had the thing really some magic in it ?
Maud's face became scarlet then all the
color fed from it, and, leaving drawer and
dust and white paper in confusion on the
floor the girl ran to the stair head and
called
Mother Kate Come, quick p
Both were busy. but such voice of alarm
yes, Maud really was terrified-was not
to be disregarded. They were upstairs in
a few seconds.
" I've opened the drawer" she said
Sowe perceive. Have you found dead
| mouse behind il ?'
Kate, seeing Maud unframed, was ma
turally bit ruffled at having been unne-
cessarily excited by the cry.
No; have found thisn
Now Maud was preternaturally still. She
held out the strange paper, by this time
yet more unrolled.
As Kate took it, it resolved itself into not
one paper only, but four papers, of which
| the corners shook themselves apart. One
had had square bits cut out-yes, decidedly
cut out.
Bonds, MOTHER Kate gasped.
Don't talk nonsense, child!'
Kate was not listening. She had had to
become acquainted with many business
matters, but she had never seen quite such
papers as these. She looked at them and
fingered them.
1.-TWO hundred and fifty lire; $50 lire
she deciphered. What are lire?"
- know" Maud put in. "a lire is the
same as franc-Italian money"
These are money, mother" And again
Kate was reduced to gasping condition.
Whose are they? They are not ours,
I'm sure Poor Mrs. Boyle pressed her
hands together How glad she would
have been to think they were hers Let
me look at them Kate?"
Finding is keeping - cried Maud. 81
shall appropriate them"
Maud :" And Kate came back from
her tremor to face the actual. They are
simply Mr.. Harbutt's. The Miss Paynes,
you may be sure. never left anything so
valuable behind them
" Perhaps it will pay their debt" Maud
by this time had lost her terror she had
passed it on to her mother and sister, and
she herself only saw the amusement of the
thing. My energy has done some good
this time, at any rate"
1t must be hundreds of pounds,
mother
Kate was standing. with her hands in
the pockets of her Holland apron, and
was watching her mother look at the dis
covery.
Mrs Boyle's pale face had grown graver
by some few degrees.
They are bonds, but what of l do not
know. l know so little of the look of
these things" she unused. Whose are
they? Whose?"
perhaps ours, mother" And Maud
poked her hand consolingly within her
mothers arm.
THAT chest of drawers belongs to the
days of our glory. There! Did not say
last night when Harry's letter came, that
our good times were coming again ?''
" Perhaps they are" And Mrs. Boyle
gave a little convulsive hug to Maud's
comforting hand. Wen hasten dinner,
girls, and one of you shall go with me to
John Bryants. He, at least, will say
whether the things are OF value or notn
You'll not give them up to him,
mother? Give up my find?
Maud, do not act the infant" Kate
cried. Go with mother, and learn what
has to be learned"
1t was as Kate had supposed. The four
papers together represented the sum of
$4,000, and were Italian Government bonds.
But whose were they? They bore no
mans name.