Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/290

 most. Heavily wooded—over the east end of our place. Why?”

“Do you know a secret cave there? One known to only yourself and your father?”

Her eyes lighted up with remembrance. “Of course!” she declared. “Away up, near the top. The front of it is covered with brush and stones, so that you’ll never guess there’s a cave there. What great times I used to have playing there when I was a kid—I discovered it, you know. I never told anybody about it but my father—it was our secret. And the money⸺”

“Here,” said Val, handing her the memorandum Eddie had written at his dictation the night before.

Peter J. Pomeroy.”

Her face lighted up in comprehension.

“Of course!” she exclaimed. “If that isn’t just like my father—dear old man. That’s just the very place he would have thought of. I’m surprised it never occurred to me. How did you discover all this?” she asked Val.

He told her how he had located the information desired in the Bible—the book which had traveled so often between the two factions in this affair. “Your father died so suddenly, Jessica⸺”

“Yes, I was in Europe at the time. If he had had time, he would surely have told me where to look for the information. It’s just the kind of a thing he would do, you know. He was mad on the one idea of conserving his money, poor father. And to think I never saw him in life again.”