THE TREASURE BOX
When Jerry met Ruth and her companions coming slowly from the little cave,
the boys bearing the heavy, ironbound box between them, he knew instantly
what it was--his uncle's chest in which he had kept his money and papers.
"It's yours to hide again if you want to, Jerry," Ruth told him, when the
excitement of the meeting had passed, and explanations were over. "It was
what both you and Rufus Blent have been looking for, and I believe you
have the best right to it"
"It belongs to Uncle Pete. And Uncle Pete shall have it," declared the
backwoods boy. "Why, do you know, I believe if Uncle Pete once had this
box in his possession again that he might recover his mind?"
"Oh, I hope so!" Ruth cried.
First, however, the crowd of young folk had to be led through the long
tunnel and out into the open air. It was agreed that nothing was to be
said to anybody but Mr. Tingley about the treasure box. And the boys and
girls, too, agreed to say nothing at the house about Jerry's having
returned to his cave.
When they reached the brook, there were lights about the island, and guns
being fired. The entire household of Tingley Lodge was out on the hunt for
the lost ones.
The boys and girls were home and in bed in another hour, and Mrs. Tingley
was vastly relieved.
"Never again will I take the responsibility of such a crowd!" declared the
harassed lady. "My own children are enough; a dozen and a half active
young ones like these would send me to the madhouse in another week!"
But the girls from Briarwood and their boy friends continued to have a
delightful time during the remainder of their stay at Cliff Island,
although their adventures were less strenuous than those that have been
related. They went away, in the end, to take up their school duties,
pronouncing their vacation on the island one of the most enjoyable they
had ever experienced.
"Something to keep up our hearts for the rest of the school year,"
declared Heavy. "And you'll like us better, too, when we're gone, Mrs.
Tingley. We _all_--even The Fox, here--have a good side to our
characters."
Even Ann Hicks went back to Briarwood with pleasant expectations. She had
learned to understand her mates better during this holiday, and all the
girls at Briarwood were prepared to welcome the western girl now with more
kindness than before.
We may believe that Ruth and her girl friends were all busy and happy
during that next half-year at Briarwood, and we may meet them again in the
midst of their work and fun in the next volume of the series, entitled
"Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm; Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans."
Ruth Fielding, however, did not leave Cliff Island before being assured
that the affairs of Jerry Sheming and his uncle would be set right. As it
chanced, the very day the crowd had gone fishing Mr. Tingley had received
a letter from the head doctor of the hospital, to whom the gentleman had
written inquiring about old Peter Tilton.
The patient had improved immensely. That he was eccentric was true, but he
had probably always been so, the doctor said. The old man was worrying
over the loss of what he called his treasure box, and when Ruth confided
to Mr. Tingley the truth about Jerry's return and the discovery of the
ironbound box, Mr. Tingley determined to take matters into his own hands.
He first went to the cave and had a long talk with Jerry. Then he had his
team of horses put to the sledge, and he and Jerry and the box drove the
entire length of Lake Tallahaska, struck into a main road to the county
asylum, and made an unexpected call upon the poor old hunter, who had been
so long confined in that institution.
"It was jest what Uncle Pete needed to wake him up," Jerry declared to
Ruth, when he saw her some weeks later. "He knowed the box and had always
carried the key of it about his neck on a string. They didn't know what it
was at the 'sylum, but they let him keep the key.
"And when he opened it, sure enough there was lots of papers and a couple
of bags of money. I don't know how much, but Mr. Tingley got Uncle Pete to
trust a bank with the money, and it'll be mine some day. Uncle Pete's
going to pay my way through school with some of it, he says."
"But the title to the island?" demanded the excited girl of the Red Mill.
"How did that come out? Did your uncle have any deed to it? What of that
mean old Rufus Blent?"
"Jest you hold your hosses, Miss Ruth," laughed Jerry. "I'm comin' to
that."
"But you are coming to it awfully slow, Jerry," complained the eager girl.
"No. I'll tell you quick's I can," he declared. "Uncle Pete had papers. He
had been buying a part of the island from Blent on installments, and had
paid the old rascal a good part of the price. But when Blent found out
that uncle's papers were buried under the landslide he thought he could
play a sharp trick and resell to Mr. Tingley. You see, the installment
deeds were not recorded.
"However, Mr. Tingley's lawyers made old Blent get right down and howl for
mercy--yes, they did! There was a strong case of conspiracy against him.
That's still hanging fire.
"But Mr. Tingley says he will not push that, considering Rufus did all he
was told to about the title money. He gave Uncle Pete back every cent he
had paid in on the Cliff Island property, with interest compounded, and a
good lump sum of money beside as a bonus.
"Then Uncle Pete made Mr. Tingley's title good, and we're going to live at
the lodge during the closed season, as caretakers. That pleases Uncle
Pete, for he couldn't be very well content anywhere else but on Cliff
Island."
"Oh, Jerry! I am so glad it has come out all right for you," cried the
girl of the Red Mill. "And so will all the other girls be when I tell
them. And Uncle Jabez and Aunt Alvirah--for _they_ are interested in your
welfare, too."
"You're mighty kind, Miss Ruth," said the backwoods boy, bashfully.
"I--I'm thinking I've got a lot more to thank _you_ for than I ever can
express right proper."
"Oh, no! no more to me than to other folks," cried Ruth Fielding,
earnestly, for it had always been her natural instinct to help people, and
she did not wish to be thanked for it.
That being the case, neither Jerry nor the writer must say anything more
about the matter.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island, by Alice Emerson