"Like a magpie, I always hid the things I valued most in
a hole I made under the third smudge to the left, on Spot Cash's breast.
'Spot Cash' is the old boy's name, you know! When I won the bet and took
the ring home, I had a fancy to keep it in this hidie hole, for luck,
till I could find the Girl. Mother knew. She was with me at the time.
But I was half ashamed of myself for my childishness, and asked her not
to tell--not even the Governor. I shouldn't wonder if that was why it
occurred to her to pack up my treasures for France. Maybe she had a
prophetic soul, and thought, if I found the Girl, I should want to lay
my hand on the ring. Here it is, safe and sound."
As he spoke, he had somehow contrived to extract a particularly black
smudge from the region of the hobby-horse's heart. It came out with a
block of wood underneath, and left a gap which gave Spot Cash the effect
of having suffered an operation. At the back of the cavity a second
hole, leading downward, had been burrowed in the softish wood; and in
this reposed a screwed-up wad of tissue paper. Jim hooked the tiny
packet out with a finger, opened the paper as casually as though it
enclosed a pebble, and brought to the light (which found and flashed to
the depths of a large blue diamond) a quaintly fashioned ring of
greenish gold.
"This belonged to the most beautiful woman of a day that's past," Jim
said. "Now, it's for the most beautiful woman of a better day and a
still grander to-morrow.
Pages:
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385