the river," I repeated, "in a big, fat tree with a lot of stickie-out
branches!" It sounded a trifle indefinite, I thought - still I could but try.
So having packed up my rod I set out upon the search.
It was strange, perhaps, but nearly every tree I saw seemed to be either
"big" or "fat" - and all of them had "stickie-out" branches.
Thus the sun was already low in the west, and I was lighting my fifth
pipe when I at length observed the tree in question.
A great pollard oak it was, standing upon the very edge of the stream,
easily distinguishable by its unusual size and the fact that at some time
or another it had been riven by lightning. After all, the Imp's
description had been in the main correct; it was "fat," immensely fat:
and I hurried joyfully forward.
I was still some way off when I saw the distant flutter of a white skirt,
and - yes, sure enough, there was Lisbeth, walking quickly too, and she
was a great deal nearer the tree than I.
Prompted by a sudden conviction, I dropped my rod and began to run.
Immediately Lisbeth began running, too. I threw away my creel and
sprinted for all I was worth. I had earned some small fame at this sort
of thing in my university days, yet I arrived at the tree with only a very
few yards to spare. Throwing myself upon my knees, I commenced a
feverish search, and presently - more by good fortune than any thing
else - my random fingers encountered a soft, silken bundle. When
Lisbeth came up, flushed and panting, I held them in my hands.
"Give them to me!" she cried.
"I'm sorry - "
"Please," she begged.
"I'm very sorry - "
"Mr. Brent." said Lisbeth, drawing her self up, "I'll trouble you for my -
them."
"Pardon me, Lisbeth," I answered, "but if I remember anything of the
law of 'treasure-trove' one of these should go to the Crown, and one
belongs to me.
Lisbeth grew quite angry - one of her few bad traits.
"You will give them up at once - immediately?
"On the contrary," I said very gently, "seeing the Crown can have no
use for one, I shall keep them both to dream over when the nights are
long and lonely."
Lisbeth actually stamped her foot at me, and I tucked "them" into my
pocket.
"How did you know they - they were here?" she inquired after a pause.
"I was directed to a tree with 'stickie-out' branches," I answered.
"Oh, that Imp!" she exclaimed, and stamped her foot again.
"Do you know, I've grown quite attached to that nephew of mine
already?" I said.
"He's not a nephew of yours," cried Lisbeth quite hotly.
"Not legally, perhaps; that is where you might be of such assistance to
us Lisbeth. A boy with only an aunt here and there is unbalanced, so to
speak; be requires the stronger influence of an uncle. Not," I continued
hastily, "that I would depreciate aunts - by the way, he has but one, I
believe?" Lisbeth nodded coldly.
"Of course," I nodded; "and very lucky in that one - extremely
fortunate. Now, years ago, when I was a boy, I had three, and all of
them blanks, so to speak. I mean none of them ever read to me out of
the history book, or helped me to sail boats, or paddled and lost their -
No, mine used to lecture me about my hair and nails, I remember, and
glare at me over the big tea urn until I choked into my teacup. A truly
desolate childhood mine. I had no big-fisted uncle to thump me
persuasively when I needed it; had fortune granted me one I might have
been a very different man, Lisbeth. You behold in me a horrible
example of what one may become whose boyhood has been denuded of
uncles."
"If you will be so very obliging as to return my - my property."
"My dear Lisbeth," I sighed, "be reasonable; suppose we talk of
something else;" and I attempted, though quite vainly, to direct her
attention to the glories of the sunset.
A fallen tree lay near by, upon which Lisbeth seated herself with a
certain determined set of her little, round chin that I knew well.
"And how long do you intend keeping me here?" she asked in a
resigned tone.
"Always, if I had my way."
"Really?" she said, and whole volumes could never describe all the
scorn she managed to put into that single word. "You see," she
continued, "after what Aunt Agatha wrote and told me - "
"Lisbeth," I broke in, "if you'll only - "
"I naturally
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