arrassment.
That it should have been Jerry's father whom their Uncle Peter had
"fleeced"--the horrible word which had slipped reminiscently from Mrs.
Travis' lips burned in their ears! But a sudden delight finally broke
loose Gyp's tongue.

"Oh, _Jerry_, isn't it _exciting_ to think we've been hunting everywhere
and all the time it's _you_! I'm glad--'cause it sort of makes you a
relation." And her logic was so extremely stretched that everyone
laughed.

"I'd rather you got the money than anyone in the world," added Isobel.

The money--Jerry had not thought of that! Her face flushed scarlet, then
paled.

"Oh, I don't want it," she cried. "You've done so much for me."

"My dear," Uncle Johnny's voice was very business-like. "It is something
you have not the right to decline, because it was given by a dying man
to purchase a peace of mind for his last moment on earth. And now let me
look you over, Jerry-girl." He tilted her chin and studied her face.
Then he glanced approvingly down her slim length, smiling at her boyish
garments. "I guess my experiment hasn't hurt you," he said, though no
one there knew what he meant.

The evening was very exciting--why would it not be when Jerry had found
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow right in her very own lap?
Uncle Johnny stayed on overnight; some repairs to a tire were necessary
before he started homeward.

"Do you remember what you said once, Jerry, when I asked you what you
would do if you had a lot of money?" Gyp had asked as they sat out on
the veranda watching the stars. "And you said you'd go to school as long
as ever you could and then----"

Jerry had raised suddenly to an upright position from the step where she
was curled.

"Oh"--she cried, her voice deep with delight--"now I can go back to
Highacres----"

Then, at the very moment of her ecstasy, she was strangely disturbed by
the quick touch of her mother's hand laid on her shoulder.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HER MOTHER'S STORY

Sometime after she had gone to sleep, Jerry wakened suddenly with the
disturbing conviction that someone needed her. At the same moment her
ear caught a sound that made her slip her bare feet quickly to the floor
and stand, listening. It had been a soft step beneath her window--a
little sigh.

In a flash Jerry sped down the narrow stairway, past the open door of
the room where Little-Dad lay snoring, and out across the veranda. In
the dim light of the moon that hung lo