n a voice that
showed his rising excitement: "Your widow's property ought to be
somewhere in here, Nan. I think I'll stop the car and we can go forward
on foot."

"Oh!" said Nan softly, as, a moment later, she jumped out into the road.
"I never saw an orange grove before. Isn't it wonderful!"

"Goodness!" said Bess, as Grace and Walter drew up behind the big car
and ran around and joined them, "it looks as if they had all been drawn
after the same pattern--the trees, I mean. Did you ever see anything so
symmetrical in all your life?"

It was the first time any of them, except the Masons, had been close to
an orange grove, and they all went forward for a closer look at it. The
grove was set quite a way back from the road and seemed to cover many
acres of ground, stretching symmetrically back as far as the eye could
see.

The orange trees were not tall, and were shaped very much like the
little toy trees the children use to build their landscape
gardens--broad at the bottom and tapering up almost to a point at the
top.

From his examination of the documents carried by Nan, Mr. Mason had
jotted down a number of facts and figures. Now the lawyer walked forward
slowly and presently examined a number of stone markers he found set in
the ground. Then he walked to a side road and read the signs thereon. A
smile of satisfaction crossed his face.

Nan, standing close to Mr. Mason, touched his arm timidly.

"Is this Mrs. Bragley's property?" she asked in an awed tone.

"These are most certainly the orange groves mentioned in her documents,"
he said gravely. "How much of it she owns will have to be determined by
an attorney. But I guess," he added, looking down at Nan with a kindly
smile, "that the property she holds here is worth a tidy sum, several
thousand dollars at least. Of course the orange grove itself is worth a
fortune."

"I'm so glad!" cried Nan happily. "I just can't wait to let poor Mrs.
Bragley know about it."

"Well, I must say," said Bess, "that this is the first time I've really
thought those old papers were worth anything, Nan. Perhaps now we can
get rid of them so we won't have any more trouble."

"Then there was a real reason for those men shadowing Nan," said Walter,
adding with an unusually fierce scowl: "If they turn up again, I will
kill them, that's all, even if it lands me in jail."

"My, aren't we dangerous," said Nan, laughing at him.

Nan never afterward knew just how it happened, but s