d at each other, and it
was as much as half a min ate before Mark Goodwin continued:

"You would be fooled if you looked anywhere but in the walls for it. So
a shovel would be of no use to you. I have been in that cellar when
Marcy and I were on better terms than we are now, and I know that the
floor is laid in cement. It would be a job, I tell you, for a woman to
dig it up and put it down again, and she couldn't do it so that the spot
would not show itself to the first person who might happen to go in
there."

"A woman!" exclaimed Allison.

"Yes, for a woman did the work," answered Mark, who could not have
spoken with more confidence if he had been in Mrs. Gray's company on the
night the thirty thousand dollars were concealed. "You know Marcy was
not at home when his mother made those trips about the country."

"What of that? Didn't she take some of her old servants into her
confidence?"

"No, sir. When people are trying to carry water on both shoulders as
Mrs. Gray is, they don't let one hand know what the other does."

"And I believe," said Allison, getting upon his feet again and walking
about the cabin, "that if somebody should go for Mrs. Gray's coachman in
the right way, he would find out all about it. But I say, Mark, it's
time for us to be riding along. What shall we bring you when we come
again, mother? Snuff and smoking tobacco are always acceptable, I
suppose?"

"And don't forget to say that you haven't seen either one of us for more
than a week," chimed in Mark. "Doings of some sort are liable to happen
in the settlement at any hour of the day or night, and we don't want our
names mixed up with them. We shall attend strictly to our own business,
and hope that those ruffians who carried Hanson away will do the same."

"I am mighty glad to hear you say that, and I don't want you to
disremember what I have tole you," answered the old woman, with some
earnestness. "You aint to go a-pesterin' of Marcy Gray an' his maw, kase
there is folks about here who won't by no means take it kind of you if
you do."

The boys promised that they would bear her warning in mind, but Tom
Allison told himself that he thought he should do as he pleased about
heeding it. He was not obliged to consult anybody's wishes, in dealing
with such a traitor as Marcy Gray had shown himself to be. He turned his
back to the fire while Mark was putting on his overcoat, and just then a
gentle snore reminded him that there was one perso