A soft tap fell on the door.

“Lights go off in ten minutes, girls,” said Miss Lacey pleasantly.

“Do you know, Betty,” confessed Norma hurriedly, “dad has lost quite a lot of money lately.  He’s such a dear he never can bear to press payment of a bill and half the county owes him.  And a friend got him to invest what he did have in some silly stock that never amounted to a hill of beans, as the farmers say.  So it’s no wonder the Macklin fortune worries mother whenever she thinks of it; a family like ours could use money so easily.”

“Most families are like that,” said Betty, with a flash of Uncle Dick’s humor.  “I didn’t like to ask, Norma, but your grandmother must have been wealthy.”

“She was,” confirmed Norma.  “Not fabulously so, of course.  But even in those days when lavish hospitality was common Grandma Macklin was famous for the way she ran the estate.  She was left a widow when a very young woman, and mother was her only child.  Her husband didn’t believe women knew very much about money, and he left his fortune mostly in bonds and jewels—­the most magnificent diamonds in three counties, grandma says hers were.  And she had a rope of emeralds and two strings of exquisitely matched pearls.  Besides, there were rose topazes and lovely cameos and oh, goodness, I couldn’t repeat the list; Alice and I have been brought up on the story.

“Well, about the time mother had finished school, Grandma Macklin came to the end of her bank account.  Several mortgages had been paid her in gold, and she kept this money with the jewelry and a lot of solid silver in a little safe in her room.  Foolish, of course, but she says others did it in those days, too.  She meant to take the gold and some of the diamonds to her lawyer and get a check which would take her and mother around the world on a luxurious cruise.  And the day before she had the appointment with Mr. Davies—­”

A soft blackness settled down over the girls like a blanket.  The electric lights had gone out!

“Move closer, and I’ll finish,” whispered Norma.

Betty snuggled up between the two, and shivered a little with excitement.

“The day before she was to drive to Edentown,” repeated Norma, “a band of Indians from the reservation in the next state came through on their annual tramping trip and walked in on poor little grandma as she sat at her mahogany secretary turning over her jewels and counting her beautiful shining gold.  Every darkey on the place fled in terror, and those rascally Indians simply scooped up everything in sight and locked grandma and mother in the room!”

“Couldn’t any one stop them?” demanded Betty eagerly.  “Surely a band of Indians could have been easily traced.  Didn’t any one try?”

“Oh, they tried,” admitted Norma.  “That’s the maddening part.  Suppose I told you, Betty, that I know where grandma’s inheritance is this minute?”

CHAPTER XIII