th William and I began
to care about the Bible, I told him how I came by the book, but thought
I would wait before I said anything about the ring; perhaps something
would come to clear up the mystery, and it would be time enough to
produce the ring when some one came forward to claim it; but no one has
done so yet."

"And you have no suspicion at all who it belongs to, or who dropped it?"

"No, none whatever."

"Well," continued Bradly, "I don't think it fell out of the leaves of
the Bible, as not a word is said about it in John Hollands' letter. I'm
of opinion as it slipped off accidentally from the hand of the woman as
she was dropping the Bible; and since it's clear she didn't want it to
be known who she was, if she knows where she lost her ring she won't
want to come and claim it."

"And do you think," asked Foster, "that she is some one living in
Crossbourne or the neighbourhood?"

"Pretty certain," replied Thomas. "There's been some roguery or
trickery about it altogether. The bag was in Crossbourne on the 23rd of
last December, and your wife got the Bible that same evening. I'm
firmly persuaded there's been some hoax about it all, and I believe bag
and bracelet and all's in the town, if we only knew how to find 'em
without making the matter public. If we could only get at the owner of
the ring without making a noise, we might find a clue as would lead us
to where the bag is."

"I'm much of your mind," said Foster. "I fancy that some one of poor
Jim Barnes's drunken mates has been playing a trick off on him by
watching him into the Railway Inn, and running off with the bag just to
vex him; and then, when he found what was in the bag, he would hide all
away except the Bible, for fear of getting into a scrape. But can
anything be done about the ring?"

"I'll tell you what we'll do if you'll let me have it for a while," said
Bradly, with a twinkle in his eye. "I'll get our Betsy to wear it in
the mill to-morrow. You'll see there'll something come out of it, as
sure as my name's Thomas Bradly."

Accordingly, next morning Betsy Bradly appeared at the mill with the
ring on her little finger--a circumstance which soon drew attention,
which was expressed first in looks and then in whispers, much to the
quiet amusement and satisfaction of the wearer. No questions, however,
were asked till the dinner hour, and then a small knot of the hands,
principally of the females, gathered round her. These were som