chile, shoo! You'd have just as much right as de rats an'
mice."

Lilly jumped up. "I think Maum' Hepsey's idea a good one," said she.
"Who knows? That trunk may turn out a gold-mine."

Back we went to the house, and made an appeal to Aunt Nanny to be
allowed to open the trunk.

"Dear me, girls! what will you think of next?" said she. "I had almost
forgotten that old trunk."

"Tell us about the man who left it, aunty. What was his name?"

"That's what none of us know. He came here about dusk one evening--a
wild, distracted looking man he was--and said he wanted to leave a trunk
until called for. You know your uncle David was a commission-merchant,
and very often had packages left with him for safe-keeping. He had a
book in which he registered the names of the owners, descriptions of the
parcels, etc. He turned to his desk to get out this ledger, and when he
looked round again the man was gone. Your uncle ran to the door, but no
trace of him was to be seen. He says that he would have thought the
whole thing a dream, but for the little trunk on the floor."

"What a romance!" cried Lil.

"The poor fellow must have been killed," said Aunt Nanny. "We advertised
the trunk after the war, but no claimant ever came for it."

"And you've kept it all this time without looking into it? How could
you? It would have been a perfect Blue Beard's chamber to me."

"Dear me, child! With all the trouble that's come to this house I've had
other things to do than to go prying into strangers' trunks."

"Well, you've got to pry now," said Lilly with her little air of
decision. "Who knows what treasures we may unearth? Can't we open it,
aunty?"

"Yes, if Uncle David says so."

We could hardly wait for Uncle David to come home. We dragged the trunk
down from the attic to the sitting-room: finally, we went to the gate to
watch for Uncle David, and before he was well in the house had won his
consent to open the trunk. In fact, I think he was not without a mild
curiosity himself, though he said, "I feel uncommonly like a burglar,"
as he knelt down by the trunk and tried to force the lock.

"How do you know how a burglar feels?" said Lil saucily.

It was rather an exciting moment. A sea-breeze sprang up, and the blinds
rattled loudly, as though some angry hand were trying to break them
away. I started nervously and looked over my shoulder, half expecting to
see the wrathful face of a slim, dark man. A cold air blew through the
room.