"A trunk? You know I am interested in stray trunks. If mine had been sent by express, I'd be very keen about it."
"How was yours sent?"
"A local expressman was to take it to the steamer and I was unable to identify him when the trunk didn't turn up. I had his claim check, but that was in the pocket-book of which I was robbed – so you see – There was a tag on the trunk, but that might have been torn off. Well, let's hear about Mr. Matthew's trunk. It's rather interesting, this, and may give me a clue to mine."
"My dear young man, I fear a dishonest driver is what is wrong in your direction, or your trunk may have been stolen from the wagon, or have fallen off. However, that is an old subject, isn't it? Mr. Matthews' is a neat little steamer trunk, of rather an old fashion. Of course, he has no key, and had no time to get a locksmith, so we don't know the contents."
"Mine was a small steamer trunk, not of a new fashion. It had been my mother's; but, being small and in good condition, I used it for myself, old as it was. It had her initials on it, for she had it before she was married."
Miss Ri leaned forward and asked earnestly: "What were they?"
"J. S. D. Julia Somers Darby was her maiden name."
Miss Ri looked at him excitedly. "J. S. D.? My dear man, those are the very initials on Berk's trunk."
It was Mr. Jeffreys' turn to look agitated. "Miss Hill, are you sure? Do you think – ?" he began. "Miss Hill, could it be possible that it is my trunk? Will you tell me all the details? Where is this place that you found it? Perhaps, though, I'd best see Matthews."
"But he has not yet come back."
"True; I had forgotten that."
"I can tell you where the place is," continued Miss Ri, "if it will do any good," and she proceeded to describe the locality, Mr. Jeffreys listening intently.
"It is well worth looking into," he decided. "I don't suppose there is any chance of my catching Mr. Matthews in town before he leaves?"
"There is no boat up to-night, you know."
"That is so. I did not remember that this was Saturday."
"Moreover, if you were to take the train, very likely he would have left by the time you could reach the city. Better possess your soul in patience, Mr. Jeffreys, and wait till he gets back."
"I have been patient for some time," he responded quietly.
"To be sure, you have; so that twenty-four hours longer will not seem impossible. It certainly is a curious coincidence, though doubtless there are other steamer trunks bearing the initials J. S. D."
"Yes, I admit that; and how mine could have found its way to the express office is another puzzle."
"I shouldn't bother much about the how, if you discover that it really did reach there."
There was a pause for a moment, then Linda said: "You haven't told Aunt Ri your secret yet, cousin."
Miss Ri wheeled around in her chair. "Cousin! What are you talking about, Verlinda Talbot?"
"Our great-grandfathers were brothers, Miss Hill," said Mr. Jeffreys. "It doesn't give a very near relationship, I admit, but there it is and we are of the same blood."
"Well, I am astonished. Tell me all about it, right away. Your great-grandfather on the Talbot side, is it, Verlinda? Yours was Madison, and who was yours, Mr. Jeffreys?"
"Cyrus, whose daughter Lovina married Wyatt Jeffreys, after whom I am named. My grandfather that was, you see."
"And that is why the name always sounded so familiar," exclaimed Linda. "I am sure I have heard my grandmother speak of him, for you see, Lovina would be her husband's first cousin. Go on, please, Mr. Jeffreys."
"Very well. After the War of 1812, Cyrus Talbot removed to Western Pennsylvania. I believe his house was burned during that war, and he, like many others, was seized with the spirit of emigration to the West."
"The old house at Talbot's Addition was burned, you remember," cried Linda, turning to Miss Ri, "though I don't know just when." She turned again to Mr. Jeffreys.
"Lovina married a young Englishman," he continued. "In those days the feeling was very bitter against the English, and her father refused to see her; but after his death an old box of papers came into her possession, and they were found to be his. He had married a second time, but there were no children by this marriage. By his will, Cyrus Talbot left most of his property in Western Pennsylvania to his wife, but a clause of the will read: 'The remainder of my property to my daughter Lovina.' A little farm in that part of the country to which he emigrated was supposed to be all that came to Lovina, but the old papers show, we believe, that he still had a claim to estates here in Maryland. Lovina went to England after her marriage, and the papers were left with some of the neighbors, though she seems to have had possession of them afterward, for there was a memorandum giving the name and address of the persons in whose care it was eventually left. This memorandum my father found after her death, and when he came to this country later on, he hunted up the box and told me several times that there might be something in those papers if one had time or would take the trouble to look them over. He settled in Hartford and died there. My father left a life insurance which was sufficient for my mother's needs and which has descended to me now that she is gone. I have not studied a profession, but had a clerkship, which seemed to promise little future, and after thinking over the situation, I determined to make a break, come down here and see if there were really anything to be done about that property."
He concluded his story. Miss Ri sat drumming on the arms of her chair, as was her habit when thinking deeply. Linda, no less preoccupied, sat with eyes fixed upon the plants in the window. It was she who broke the silence. "It must be Talbot's Addition," she decided; "but, oh, what a snarl for the lawyers."
"It certainly will be," agreed Miss Ri, with a little laugh. "My dear man, I am thinking the game will not be worth the candle. However, we shall see. If Berk takes up your case, you may be sure of honest dealing, at least. He little knows what his purchase has brought about."
Yet it was not at the end of twenty-four hours that Wyatt Jeffreys received the assurance he hoped for, though he sought the Jackson House immediately upon the arrival of the morning boat. Mr. Matthews was not there. Had he arrived? Oh, yes; he came in on the train the night before, but went off again with Judge Baker first thing in the morning. When would he be back? Not for some time. He took a trunk with him, and would be making the circuit with the judge.
Therefore Wyatt Jeffreys turned disappointedly away. He went directly to Miss Ri, who observed him walking so dejectedly up the gravelled path, that she went out on the porch to meet him.
"Wasn't it your trunk?" she began. "I had worked myself quite into the belief that it must be, so I am not ready for a disappointment."
"It is not exactly disappointment, but only hope deferred," was the reply. "Mr. Matthews came last night, but went off early this morning with Judge Baker."
"Pshaw! that is trying, isn't it? However, we must make the best of it. Perhaps he didn't take the trunk."
"He took a trunk."
"I wonder if he started from the Jackson House or his office? We might make a tour of investigation. Just wait till I look to one or two things, and then we'll see what can be done."
She did not keep him waiting long, and together they went first to the square brick building, with its white columns, which was designated the Jackson House. Its porch was occupied by various persons who, with chairs tipped back, were smoking sociably. In the lobby were gathered others who, less inclined for outdoor air, were taking a morning cigar there. Miss Ri interviewed the clerk, porter, and chambermaid to gather the information that Mr. Matthews had come in on the train with a trunk, which came up on the bus with him and which the porter afterward carried to his office; the same trunk it was which he took with him that morning.
"Now we'll go to his office," decided Miss Ri as they left the hotel. "I am wondering what he did with the papers. There is probably a youngster in charge of the office, who can tell us something."
The office was just across the street. Here they learned that Mr. Matthews had come in that morning in a great rush to gather up what he should need for the trip. "He was here last night, too, Miss Ri," said the lad, a fresh-faced youngster of seventeen or so. "He told me he had to do some work, and he came to my house and got the key."
"Do you know if he took any papers from his trunk to leave behind?" inquired Miss Ri.
"I don't know; but if he did, they would be in the little room upstairs. I can see. Were there some papers of yours, Miss Ri? Perhaps I could find them, if you will tell me what they are."
"There were some papers belonging to a particular case which I wanted to get at," she explained.
The lad hesitated when she asked, "Could we go up to the little room?"
"It's not in very good order," he told her. "It's where Mr. Matthews keeps odds and ends."
"We shall not mind the disorder," Miss Ri told him. So he led the way up a narrow stairway to a little attic room with a small dusty-paned window at each end. The room held a motley collection of things: saddles and bridles, a shooting outfit, two or three old hats hung on the wall, one or two boxes of books and pamphlets were shoved under some rough shelves. The boy dragged out a large valise stuffed so full that its sides gaped. It was locked, but from one end hung a cravat, which Mr. Jeffreys drew out, slowly examining it, Miss Ri regarding him questioningly.
"It looks very like one of mine," he said; "but I don't lay claim to a particular brand of tie." He turned over the heavy valise, shaking it from side to side. From the bulging crevice fell a card upon which was printed, "Wyatt B. Jeffreys, Hartford Fire Insurance Co." The young man held it out silently to Miss Ri, who gasped, "Of all things! That settles it."
CHAPTER X
PURSUING CLUES