New Britain herald., 1929-12-20
Chapter 29 TIE LUCKY BAG


 eyes, dabbed on more powder to cover the tear stains and sat back in her chair.
 After all she still had much to be thankful for, even if her uncle's large fortune had dwinded to Yew Lodge, it's contents and its surround ing property. Philander Chase's com ments on the furniture and paintings had indicated that the belongings within the house were Of real and perhaps commercial value. No, in- stead of being upset she had every reason to feel elated.
 Peggy's spirits scared high as the inevitable reaction set in: she was of too buoyant and happy a tenn pcrament to remain long downcast. Why should she worry?
 Never before had she owned any thing more valuable than a diamond brooch and, as affairs stood, if Uncle Herbert was found to have been in- sane, such property as he had, would go to her father, and, if the will stood, then she would inherit, provided she carried out the stipula- tions therein.
 She bent forward and consulted the calendar on the desk-but 13 days remained to the 17th of June. An unlucky number-perhaps. Peg 2y's determination to remain at Yew Lodge for that length of time grew adamantine; nothing should budge her; the detectives cauld come to her, and her exercise hereafter would be an hours constitutional around the house, with Julia timing her.
 She would leave no loophole for the courts to award Yew Lodge to Comm. Jamieson Sincair-she was commencing to loathe the man, even his name was growing obnoxious.
 With her arms resting on the desk Peggy did some figuring; she had just enough ready cash to meet cur rent expenses for the month, provid- ed she included the s2O gold piece she had found in the old Bible two nights before.
 The gold piece again bro-ght to mind the Bible and it's three under scored passages. No need to look at the pages again-she could re- cite them blindfolded:
 Good news from far coun- try" she repeated, aloud. "'Fret not myself because of evil doers.' When thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy ex- pectation shall not be cut off,"
 The disjointed phrases, when run together into sentences, made sense. Peggy sat up. Was her too vivid imagination playinug her false, was she attaching too much importance to this message from q far coun- try"
 And, strange as it seemed. the completed message, as she rccited it, seemed most appropriate to her situation. Evil men, Edgar Stanton. for instance, had "fretted" her. to put 1t mildly; her "eXpectation' of 8 large inheritance had been sum- marily "cut off" by the news that her uncle's negotiable securities were missing.
 But if those quotations applied to her did not the passage, 'When thou hast found it. then there shall be reward" hold an even deeper sig nificance? Suppose it related to the missing securities? Suppose her uncle himself had removed the se- Curities and brought them to YeW Lodge and secreted them in some scret hiding place?
 Electrified by the thought, she sprang to her feet. If Herbert Pres colt had gone daft on religion. what more likely than that he had used those passages to cloak the hiding place Of his wealth?
 She paused with her hand on the two Bibles she had already gone over them again and again and had found no more black arrows on the margins of any page.
 Perhaps if she could locate the missing pages from the big Bible, there might be some indication some hint. She and Obadiah Evans had found the book in the basement in the padlocked room; why not, therefore, investigate that room more thoroughly?
 The thought appealed and Peggy searched in one of the smaller drawers of the desk which she kept locked; she had placed the key there, carefully marked. Locating it with several others, she went to get her electric torch. But at the cellar stairs she hesitated; Julia had not returned and she was Stone in the house. For a moment doubt assailed her, then, with a characteristic toss of her head, she ran down the stairs.
 Placing her torch where the light would play directly on the door. she thrust the key into the paddock. It would not turn. Surprised, she tried inserting it upside down, but that did not work either.
 Much perturbed she withdrew the key and examined the tag attached to it. Bedroom door in basement" so read her writing. Had she been such fool as to attach the tag to the wrong key? Swiftly she tried the other house keys; none fitted.
 Baffled, Peggy looked more close ly at the paddock, and it's fresh con- dition caught her attention. The paddock as she recalled it, had been rusty: even the locksmth had spoken of it. Then how came this new paddock on the door? Peggy stood upright. thinking. thinking-yes she had gone up- stairs leaving Obadiah Evans to close and lock the bedroom door. He 1! might have given her the wrong key l before leaving. She opened her hand and held | tho long thin steel key under her