The Coming Wave; Or, The Hidden Treasure of High Rock by Oliver Optic (books to improve english txt) 📖

[Pg 121]"And this was Harvey's room," continued the woman glancing around the chamber, and then bestowing especial attention upon the fireplace.

"This was his room," replied Leopold, as he moved towards the door. "Can I do anything more for you?"

"No, nothing now. You are the boatman, I believe; and you have bought a new boat."

"I bought one just before Harvey Barth left the house. Did he tell you about her?"

"Well, nothing in particular, only he said you were a great boatman, and a very good boy."

As the woman did not seem inclined to say anything more, Leopold left the room, and returned to the office.

"Can you make out what she is, Leopold?" asked his father.

"No; she says she is no relation to Harvey, but she was a good deal interested in him. She seems to know all about me; but I suppose Harvey Barth told her."

"I wonder what she is driving at?" added the landlord, whose curiosity, as well as that of his son, was raised to the highest pitch.[Pg 122]

"I haven't any idea. If she is not a relation of Harvey, what is she, and why did she want his room?"

"I can't tell."

"How old do you think she is, father?"

"About forty, I should say."

"Harvey couldn't have been engaged to her, or anything of that sort—could he?" suggested Leopold.

"I should think not. She is ten years older than he was, I should say," replied Mr. Bennington.

No satisfactory solution presented itself, and Miss Sarah Liverage had to remain a mystery for the time.

[Pg 123]

Miss Sarah Liverage had been three days at the Cliff House before the mystery of her coming appeared to promise a solution. The landlord was sure she had come for something, for all her speech and all her actions indicated this. She had not visited the shore for recreation, and was not idling away a vacation. One day she commenced a conversation with Mr. Bennington, and the next with Leopold; and, though she evidently desired to make some important revelation, or ask some startling question, she always failed to carry out her purpose. She was nervous and excitable; and on the second day of her stay at the hotel, the chambermaid discovered her in her room, on her knees before the fireplace, apparently investigating the course of the flue; but when the girl[Pg 124] asked her what she was doing, she answered that she was looking for her shawl-pin, which she had dropped.

The weather was rather chilly, and the wind blew fresh and stormy on the bay, so that Leopold seldom went out in the new boat, but did a man's work about the hotel; for as the season advanced the "help" was reduced. Miss Liverage, for some reason, seemed to be very desirous of cultivating his acquaintance, and she talked with him much more than with his father. On the second day of her stay she offered him a dollar, when he brought her a pitcher of water to drink in the parlor, which the young man was too proud to accept. The guest talked to him for half an hour; and he noticed that she did not drink any of the water he had brought. On the strength of this and other similar incidents, Leopold declared that she was a very strange woman. She sent for him, or procured his attendance by less direct means, as though she had something to say; but she did not say it. She asked a multitude of questions in regard to some of the localities in the vicinity, but she did not connect her business at Rockhaven with any of them.[Pg 125]

On the third day of her residence at the Cliff House a violent north-east storm commenced, and the guest could not go out of the house as she had been accustomed to do in the forenoon for a short time. From the cliff near the house Leopold had explained to her the geography of the vicinity; and when she inquired where the ledges were on which the Waldo had been lost, he indicated the direction in which they were situated, for the high land on the south shore of the river intercepted the view of them. Miss Liverage appeared to become more desperate in her purpose, whatever it was as the day passed away; and the storm seemed to increase her excitement. On the fourth day after her arrival, she vibrated between her chamber and the parlor all the forenoon, occasionally visiting the dining-room and the office. The landlord said she was "as uneasy as a fish out of water;" and he carried books and newspapers to her, but these did not seem to occupy her attention. She only glanced at them, and it was plain that her mind wandered when she attempted to read them. After dinner, on this eventful day her desperation appeared to culminate in a resolve to do[Pg 126] something; and for the twentieth time since her arrival she sent for Leopold.

When he entered the parlor, where she was nervously walking across the floor, she closed the door after him, and looked out at the windows which opened on the piazza, apparently to assure herself that no one was within hearing distance of her. She labored under more than her usual excitement of manner, and the landlord's son was impressed with a belief that something was about to happen. Miss Liverage had evidently made up her mind to say something, and Leopold promptly made up his mind, also, to hear what it was.

"I didn't come down here for nothing," said she, and then paused to observe the effect of this startling revelation upon her auditor.

"I didn't suppose you did," replied Leopold, judging from the pause that he was expected to say something, though he was not very deeply impressed by the guest's announcement.

"Leopold, Harvey Barth said you were a very nice young man," she added.

"Then I suppose I am, for I think Mr. Barth was a man of good judgment," laughed Leopold.[Pg 127]

"He told me you owed some money for your new boat."

"He told the truth at that time; but I don't owe anything now. I was very lucky with the mackerel, and I have had plenty of jobs for the boat, so that I have paid up all I owed."

"Then you have paid your debt," added Miss Liverage, apparently "headed off" by the young man's reply.

"I don't owe a cent to anybody."

"I didn't know but you might want to make some money."

"I do; I am always ready to make a dollar, though I don't owe anybody anything," replied Leopold, willing to encourage the woman, while he did not desire to make anything out of her.

"Five hundred dollars is a good deal of money," continued Miss Liverage, watching the countenance of the young man very closely.

Leopold did not dispute the remark, and with a nod he admitted the truth of it.

"I suppose you would not object to making five hundred dollars, Leopold."

"I don't believe I should, if I could make it honestly, fairly, and above-board; but I wouldn't[Pg 128] steal five hundred dollars for the sake of having it."

"Of course not. I wouldn't, either," protested Miss Liverage. "I never did anything which was not honest, fair, and above-board, and I never mean to. Now, Leopold, I can put you in the way of making five hundred dollars."

"Can you? I am sure I shall not object. I suppose the money would do me as much good as it would anybody."

"I have no doubt it would. Now, can you keep a secret?" demanded the woman, more excited than ever; so much so that her manner began to be decidedly melo-dramatic.

"That depends on circumstances," answered Leopold, who was not yet quite clear in his own mind whether or not the woman was crazy. "If it is to cheat anybody out of a cent, even, I wouldn't keep a secret any more than I would the itch, if I could get rid of it."

"Nonsense, Leopold! I am not going to cheat or wrong anybody. I wouldn't do such a thing for all the money in the world."

"I can keep a secret that won't harm anybody," added the young man.[Pg 129]

"Will you promise me solemnly not to tell any one, not even your father, what I say to you?" asked Miss Liverage, in a low tone, and in a very impressive manner.

"If the matter don't concern my father, I won't tell him of it, or anybody else. But I don't want you to tell me anything that concerns any person—that is, in a way to do any injury."

"It don't concern any living soul," interposed Miss Liverage, impatiently. "I know where there is some money."

The last remark was whispered, after a glance at the door and all the windows of the parlor.

"Where is it?" asked Leopold, now for the first time manifesting a real interest in the conversation.

"In the ground."

"Buried?"

"Yes."

Miss Liverage was very much agitated for a few moments, for she had now actually entered upon the business which had brought her to Rockhaven. Of course this important revelation was in some manner to involve Harvey Barth;[Pg 130] but Leopold was not willing to believe that the sick man had buried any considerable sum of money, unless his speech and his life while at the hotel were both a lie.

"Will you promise to keep the secret?" demanded the woman, as soon as she had overcome in a measure her agitation.

"On the condition I said, I will," replied Leopold. "But after you have told me, if I find that anybody is to be wronged by my keeping still, I shall tell all I know."

"I'm satisfied. I hope you don't think