your tongue, John Benton, you sassy boy. As sure as I'm alive, I
saw the ghost of Antonio Bernal peeking in at that open window afore I
shut it. He was so white I couldn't tell him from paper, and so thin I
'peared to see clean through him."

"Pshaw, mother! You're overtired, and for once in your life really
nervous. I reckon it's the sight of more money than ever come your way
before. Well, forget it. 'Tisn't yours nor mine. We've no cause to
worry. I'll step and get you a drink of water and then you'll feel all
right, and would better go to bed."

"I don't want water, and I shan't go to bed. I shan't close my eyes
this night, John Benton, and you needn't touch to tell me so."

"All right. Stay awake if you like. It's nothing to me," answered the
exasperated man, who, in spite of his strong common sense, had been
more startled than he cared to admit, even to himself. But, glancing
at Mrs. Trent and Jessica, he now felt that it would be wiser to
express his own fear, which was of nothing supernatural.

"Mother's upset, 'admiral,' and don't you let her upset you, too. The
fact is, we're a very careless set at Sobrante, where everything
is--or used to be--all open and above board. It's a new thing for keys
to be turned on this ranch, and it's a new thing for us to go
suspecting one another of sneak notions. I, for one, am ashamed enough
of the way I've felt about old Ephraim Marsh, and if he don't show up
pretty soon, I'll make a special trip to Los Angeles to tell him so.
Even if I have to foot it the heft of the way.

"Howsomever, all the world ain't as honest as them that had the honor
of knowin' Cassius Trent. There's been a power of strangers on these
premises durin' these last days; and it stands to reason that among
'em one villain might have crept in. I ain't sayin' there was. I'll
never accuse nobody again--'cept--'cept----"

Here the honest fellow interrupted himself with a laugh; remembering
his ingrained suspicion of the two Bernals, which he would never even
try to overcome. But he went on again:

"Mother thinks she's seen somethin', and like enough she has. There
might be some scamp hangin' around; and if there was, and he looked
through that window and saw all this gold, I don't wonder his face was
ghosty-lookin', nor--Somebody stop me talking and answer this: Where's
the safest place to stow that pile?"

For a moment nobody replied. Mrs. Trent was wishing, most heartily,
that the money had never