Page:Anderson--Isle of seven moons.djvu/285

Rh " return with " "No, no, monsieur, I will stay."

Then the contralto voice asked a question which she could not understand, but she translated a fragment of the answer.

"Here—the one home left."

Again in the woman's voice she recognized two words, "dig," and "gold."

Shaking his head and smiling as at a child's foolish fancy, he answered still in French:

"I will dig—yes—but it should be for food, not for fool's gold."

Still another band of strangers who knew of the mysterious treasure!

In her surprise Sally's hand fell on the piano keys, warped and dried like the teeth in those death-heads on the sand. She started the little golden typhoons whirling through the sun beams again, and a snarling discord that woke the echoes of the house.

Startled, she shrank from the ancient instrument, but then, a little ashamed of her fears, and full of sympathy for the young man outside, whose face was so kind, she passed out of the doorway to offer help.

But when she reached the tree under which the three had stood, they had disappeared, probably in the surrounding forest.