re will be that title deed! You
look, 'boys,' I can't, I tremble so."

Samson forced his great length downward and inward under the bowlders
and found, as Jessica had felt sure, a small but perfectly dry and
well-protected cave. The rocks and live oaks screened it from the sight
of those who did not know it existed, and it would never have been
suspected that there was aught but solid ground beneath those jagged
stones.

The horses and Scruff were willing to stand without tying, and Ninian
was, in any case, too excited now to have remembered them. He saw that
Lady Jess was trembling, indeed, and trembled himself. If this should
prove a disappointment, how would she bear it?

But it was not to be that. From the little cave there presently issued a
mighty shout. That is it would have been mighty had the space been large
enough to give it vent. As it was, it came like the subdued roar of a
wild animal, and it was almost surprising to see the soles of Samson's
boots emerge from the opening instead of furry feet.

When he had crawled outward so far that he could lift himself upright,
the sailor leaped so high that Ninian felt as if he were the one who
had gone "queer" instead of Jessica, suspected. But this reason was
obvious; for there in his hand was the veritable black tin box familiar
to the girl from her earliest memory, and seen often enough by the herder
to be instantly recognized.

When, at last, the box was in her own hands Jessica became very quiet,
though her voice still trembled as she said:

"This belongs to my mother. It is for her to open it."

"No, captain."

"Not so, Jessica. If the deed for which she looked were not there it
would be but a fresh distress to her. You look. It is your interest as
well as hers, and if it is not there you can save her, at least, one
disappointment on this day of your return."

The opinions of her two friends prevailed; and, since they had no key,
Samson's great knife forced the lock, and stored within were papers and
vouchers of great value to Sobrante, which the faithless manager had
carried away for his own purposes.

The deed? Ah, yes. There it lay at the very bottom of the pile, and
Jessica knew it at once for the queer paper which her father had shown
her on the night before his death.

For a time she could only weep over it and caress it, remembering the
dear hands which had held it before her, and the unforgotten voice which
had explained its value and all