Norton, Andre - Novel 32 by Ten Mile Treasure (v1.0)

had expected to
find. There could not
be, she was sure, any more such wonderful surprises as Lady Maude.
    "There're some pictures. Look here!" Neal snapped open a case. Fitted neatly into sections made to hold them were a number of small boxes.
Some were square, some oval, one or two round. Neal pried one out and opened it so the girls could see a framed picture of a woman.
She wore clothes like those of Lady Maude
and rested her elbow on a pillar so she looked stiff and uncomfortable, as if having one's picture taken hurt.
    "All different
pictures." Neal snapped the big case shut again. "This was inside with them." He held out a card
covered with his own
dusty fingerprints.
    " 'Hiram Peabody, Representative, Smith- ers and Son, Supplies for
Photography Stu dios—'
"
    "These must have been samples—the kind of picture frames people liked
then. That's all— just
clothes, the strongbox, and the mail sack. Oh, yes, and the doll. We can't keep them here in the cave to show off like we
thought—they'd all
get too dirty."
    "We could have cases—glass ones—in the station
house," suggested Christie. Lady Maude must be protected.
    "Have to be a lot of cases, maybe. And I don't know
about showing off old clothes," Neal answered doubtfully.
    "Lady Maude's best! She's wonderful!" Perks cried. "You didn't
see—but she has all sorts
of things! Little, little hairpins, and hankies, and a bustle—that makes her
dress stick out in
the back like the ladies' in the olden days—Christie showed me. Anybody would want to see Lady Maude!"
    "Yeah? She really comes with all
that?" Neal
demanded of Christie, showing much more interest.
    "More things than I ever thought any doll could—like a Barbie, only the
things are all old, as
they had then and not now. She's just like the doll Mrs. Edwards said was a 'museum piece'—only better, because she
was never handled
much or had her things lost. So—we put her in a museum—our very own."
    "We'd have to find out about getting a case. And with everybody so busy, maybe
we'd bet ter not
bother them about it now," Neal said doubtfully.
    Leave Lady Maude here! Christie could hardly bear to think of that. But
she had been safe for
a good many years, so perhaps a few more days would not matter. Mother would be so surprised.
Christie wanted so much to show her. She bent over to shove the box farther back against the wall and the letter she put inside
her shirt prodded against her. Should she put that back in the box? Or would it
be better to take it to the
station—maybe show it to Mother?
    "I'm hungry." Parky tugged at the fastening on the picnic basket and Shan uttered one of his sharp cries for immediate
attention.
    Libby brushed a clean space on the floor with one of the leafy branches and
Neal and Toliver went to the mouth of the cave to hold their hands out into the now steadily
falling rain for a
quick wash, herding Parky along to do like wise. The girls opened the basket
and the bags the Wildhorses had brought.
    "That rain's so thick it looks like a wall," Neal reported, "and there's a
big stream running along out there."
    "Won't last long," Toliver said as the boys wiped
their hands on the paper towels Christie handed around.
    When they settled down to eat, they faced out into the rain. As Neal had
said, it was now a
curtain. Somehow that seemed to make the inside of the cave a big safe room.
    "You know"— Toliver licked a bit of mus tard
from one brown finger—" it's funny Mr. Toner hasn't been around yet to
see what's going on
at the station."
    "Who's Mr. Toner?"
    "He's boss over at the ranch, wants the water rights at the spring.
Looking at all that rain
just going to waste made me think about him. Pinto's had to be tough with old G.T. the past few years. There was
something in the law about
the station—it couldn't be sold for a long time. Well, Pinto was worried about this year 'cause that law was running out, and he thought G.T. would get it. Must have made him feel good to have you