CHAPTER VI
I
Alexina stood alone in the strong room of the bank leaning heavily against
the wall with its endless rows of compartments from one of which she had
taken the dispatch box in which she had kept her bonds.
The box had fallen to the floor. If there had been any one in the room with
her he would have started and turned as the box clanged with a hollow echo
on the steel surface.
The box was empty.
It was a large box. It had contained forty thousand dollars' worth of
bonds, nearly a third of her fortune. The securities were among the
soundest the country afforded, for Alexander Groome, wild as he may have
been when relieving the monotony of life with too many diversions, not
the least of which was speculation, never made a mistake in his permanent
investments; and others had been bought with equal prudence by Judge Lawton
or Tom Abbott.
But the bonds had been negotiable. She recalled Tom Abbott's warning to
keep them always in her safe deposit box and the key hidden. They might be
traced if stolen, but State's Prison for the thief would be cold comfort if
the bonds had been cashed and the money spent.
She had always had one of the lighter Italian pieces in her bedroom, a
beautiful cabinet of carved and gilded oak nearly black with age. Like all
such it had a secret drawer and here she had kept her keys, and her jewels
during the winter.
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