Jack raised his hand as a sign for his friend to be quiet, and at that moment somewhere on the bank above them they heard a querulous voice: 

“Why do you give me it if it is worth so moche, and there is alarm about it?” they heard in a high-keyed, querulous voice, evidently that of a woman, and Jack started involuntarily.

He had heard that voice before, but at the moment he could not tell where, or when it was.

“What have you done with it?” asked a man in a low tone, which Jack caught, nevertheless, all being silent in the place.

“How I know where I have lose it?” answered the woman.  “I have be in a many exciting time.  If there was suspicion you should not give it.  I do not know, and maybe I show it to some friend to make her jealous.”

“Did you?” growled the man.  “You should have more sense.”

“But you do not tell me.  Now it is lose.  I do not know where.  I am glad.  You should not have give me it.”

Jack now recognized the voice as that of the nurse who had taken the Van der Donk child from him the night before, but he was still at a loss to know what she was talking about.

“I gave it to you to keep safe for me until I could dispose of it,” the man answered.  “The detectives were after me.  Luckily I got rid of it in good time, but now that they have nothing against me I can dispose of it to advantage.  And you have lost it?”

“I have tell you that I have,” the woman answered in her high voice, with a strong foreign accent, Jack now remembering that she had seemed to be French or Italian, although he had met her but a few moments.  “I have lose it, and I am glad.  Why shall I get into prison for you?  You shall keep your gold and diamond watches for yourself, and not give them to me.”

“Sh! not so loud!” cautioned the man.  “Somebody may hear you.”

It was the watch he had found in his pocket that the woman was talking about, and Jack had some trouble in restraining his surprise.

“But how did you lose it?” the man continued.  “Did you carry it with you?  You don’t go to throwing such things about, do you?”

“I don’t know.  There is much excitement at the house, there is the big fire, there is the boy of the Academy coming to put it out, there is the man from Riverton, and there is the baby, which I forget, and the boy go up in all the smoke and bring him down.  I shall lose my place if the baby is lose.  How can I remember a watch, which I cannot carry, for fear some one say I steal?  Ah! you should not give!”

“And now you have lost it!” growled the man.  “Haven’t you any idea?  Couldn’t you have mislaid it?  You are not lying to me, you have really lost it, Gabrielle?”

“Yes, I tell you I have lose it, and I am glad!” cried the woman in a higher key than before, and with great excitement.

The tide now began to take the boys back down the hill, and Jack quickly steered so that he would go down with it, being speedily out of sound of voices.