"What! Oh, I say, Patty, now you"re jumbling up the sense."
"No, I"m not. I"m straightening out the sense. Suppose Mr. Marmaduke meant "above the stair across the hall," and meant this stair and this hall."
"Yes, but go on," said Sinclair; "next comes the bedhead."
"That"s my discovery!" announced Patty, with what was truly forgivable triumph.
"This carved oak chimney-piece is, I have reason to believe, the headboard of some magnificent, ancient bed."
"Patty Fairfield!" cried Sinclair, jumping up, and reaching her side with two bounds. "You"ve struck it! What a girl you are!"
"Wait a minute," said Patty, pushing him back; "I"m ent.i.tled to a hearing. Take your seat again, sir, until I unfold the rest of the tale."
Patty was fairly quivering with excitement. Her cheeks glowed, and her eyes shone, and her voice trembled as she went on.
Mabel, with clasped hands, just sat and looked at her. The elder ladies were plainly bewildered, and Bob was trying hard to sit still.
"I read in an old book," Patty went on, "how somebody else used a carved headboard for a chimney-piece, and I wondered if this mightn"t be one.
And it surely looks like it. And then I wondered if "above the stair across the hall" mightn"t mean this platform across this hall. And I think it does. But that"s not all. My really important discovery is this."
Patty"s voice had sunk to a thrilling whisper, and she addressed herself to Mrs. Cromarty, as she continued.
"I think the other rhyme, the one that says the fortune is concealed "between the fir trees and the oak," refers to this same place, and means between the painting of fir trees, which hangs over the mantel, and--the oak mantel itself!"
With a smiling bow, Patty stepped down from the platform, and taking a seat by old Mrs. Cromarty, nestled in that lady"s loving arms. The two boys made a spring for the mantel, but paused simultaneously to grasp both Patty"s hands in theirs and nearly shake her arms off. Then they left the heroine of the hour to Mabel and Mrs. Hartley and began to investigate the chimney piece.
""Between the fir trees and the oak"!" exclaimed Bob. "Great, isn"t it!
And here for thirty-five years we Cromarty dubs have thought that meant real trees! To think it took a Yankee to tell us! Oh, Patty, Patty, we"ll take down that historic painting and put up a tablet to the honour of Saint Patricia. For you surely deserve canonisation!"
""Between the bedhead and the wall,"" ruminated Sinclair. "Well, here goes for finding an opening."
Clambering up on stools, both boys examined the place where the mantel shelf touched the wall. The ornate carvings of the mantel left many interstices where coins or notes might be dropped through, yet they were by no means conspicuous enough to attract the attention of any one not looking for them.
"Crickets!" cried Bob. "There"s a jolly place for the precious poke to be located. I"m going down cellar to see if I can find traces of that mason"s work. Come on, Clair."
The two boys flew off, and the ladies remained discussing the wonderful discovery, and examining the old chimney-piece.
"I can see it was a bedhead now," said Mabel; "but I never suspected it before. What a splendid mantel it makes. Didn"t you ever hear its history, Grandy?"
"No, dear. It must have been put there when the house was built, I think.
Though, of course, it may have been added later. But it was all before my time. I married your grandfather Cromarty and came here to live in 1855.
The building and decorations then were all just as they are now, except for such additions as Marmaduke made. He may have had that mantel set up in earlier years--I don"t know. He was very fond of antique carvings."
Back came the boys from the cellar.
"The whole chimney is bricked up," Sinclair explained. "We couldn"t get into it without tearing it all down. And do you know what I think, Grandy? I think it would be wiser to take away the chimney-piece up here, and do our investigating from this end. Then, if we find anything, it will all be in this room, and not in the cellar, where the servants can pry about."
"I quite agree with you," said Mrs. Cromarty, "and I put the whole matter in your hands. You and Robert are the sons of the house, and it is your right to manage its affairs."
"Then I say, tear it down at once," cried Bob. "We needn"t damage the carving itself, and all that we break away of plaster or inner woodwork can easily be repaired, whatever our success may be."
"Shall we begin now?" asked Sinclair, doubtfully. He was not so impetuous as Bob, and would have been quite willing to study over the matter first.
"Yes, indeed!" cried his impatient brother. "I"m not going to waste a minute. I"m glad I"m a bit of a carpenter. Though not an expert, I can tear down if I can"t build up."
"But we must take it down carefully," said Sinclair. "These screws must come out first." But Bob had already gone for tools, and soon returned with screw-drivers, chisels, gimlets, and all the paraphernalia of a carpenter"s well-appointed tool-chest.
"Here goes!" he cried, as he put the big screw-driver in the first screw.
"Good luck to the Cromartys and three cheers for Uncle Marmaduke and Patty Fairfield!"
CHAPTER XIX
THE DISCOVERY
The removal of the old chimney-piece was not an easy task. If the Hartley boys hadn"t been big and strongly-built, they could scarcely have succeeded in tearing away the woodwork from the wall. But they did do it, and their labours were rewarded by the discovery of the long-lost fortune!
Sure enough the historic "poke" was a pocket or recess between the old bedhead and the main wall. It was really built in the chimney itself, though not in the flue. But this chimney-place, with its wonderfully carved mantel, was never used for fires, and the fortune had remained undisturbed in its hiding-place.
As the boys lifted away the portion of the heavy oak that covered the secret pocket, a rough wall of plaster was seen, and by tapping on it, Sinclair learned that it was hollow.
"Shall we break through?" he said. "I feel sure the money is there."
"Break through, of course," cried Bob; "but wait a moment till I lock the doors. This is no time for intruders."
Bob fastened the doors, and then with a hatchet they broke through the plaster.
And even as the old mortar crumbled beneath their blows, out fell a shower of glittering gold coins and tightly folded banknotes!
The sight was too much for the strained nerves of the watchers. Mabel burst into tears, and Mrs. Cromarty trembled like a leaf.
The boys broke into shouts of joy, and Patty scarcely knew whether to laugh or cry. But in a moment they were all congratulating each other and showering praises on Patty for her cleverness in the matter.
"It"s ours! It"s ours!" cried Bob. "It"s Grandy"s, to be sure, but it belongs to old Cromarty Manor, and we"re all Cromartys. Patty, you"re hereby adopted and made one of us."
"What shall we do with it?" asked the more practical Sinclair. "I mean, just at present. We must take care of it, at once, you know. We can"t leave it long like this."
"There"s the old Spanish chest," said Mrs. Hartley, indicating a good-sized affair that stood nearby. "Put it in that."
"Just the thing," said Bob. "Lend a hand, Clair."
It was a strange proceeding. The old coins, many of them still bright, though of far back dates; represented a great deal of money. How much, they could not guess as yet, but it was surely a large sum. Also there were Bank of England notes, folded small that they might be pushed through the openings in the carved oak, and well-preserved, as the pocket had been carefully made damp-proof.
The boys took the money out in double handfuls and deposited it in the old Spanish chest.
"It will be quite safe there until to-morrow," said Mrs. Hartley, "and then we must get it to the bank. But as no one yet knows of our discovery, there can be no danger of its being stolen to-night."