A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton - Michael R. Phillips [34]
“Do you know what’s in those?” I asked Katie.
“No,” she said. “I was only down here a time or two, for tornados and then … you know.”
I nodded. “Were the drawers of that one open like that,” I asked, pointing to the dresser, “when you were down here before?”
“I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”
“Emma must have been looking through them. Do you suppose that’s where she found the gold pieces?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to blame her—she must have been down here an hour or more.”
“She was probably scared silly.”
We went to look closer. Katie opened all the drawers. There were a few old clothes that smelled of mildew, some papers, but no more gold coins in the drawers. We looked in the wardrobe too, but it was empty. Then Katie walked over to the chest on the floor.
“It’s locked,” she said.
“Do you have any idea where the key might be?” I asked.
Katie thought a minute, then both of us seemed to remember at the same time.
“The keys in my mother’s secretary!” said Katie. Again we bolted for the stairs.
I don’t know how we kept from waking up the other two girls, but even in our excitement, somehow we didn’t. Five minutes later we were again descending into the cellar. This time a ring of keys was jingling from Katie’s hand. We hurried back to the chest, and one by one Katie fumbled with the keys to find one that would go into the padlock of the chest. When she found the one that opened it and then lifted the lid back, our hearts really started pounding. I think both of us were hoping it would be full of gold and jewels like a pirate’s treasure.
But it wasn’t. There were just a bunch of men’s shirts and trousers, a pair of boots, and one dress-up coat that had probably been real nice once. Everything in the chest was worn and old and didn’t smell so good.
Disappointed, we stared at it a minute, then Katie started rummaging through it.
“I wonder if what you said earlier’s true,” she said, “about those coins being my uncle’s. I wonder if these are his clothes.”
“ Didn’t you say he was here once?”
“I think so. I think that’s how I got the idea into my head that he had gold. I once had a dream about it, though I imagined gold nuggets or something, not coins. But my memory of it is vague now.”
She held up a second pair of trousers that was stuffed in the bottom. As she threw it back in with the rest, we heard a faint metallic sound. Katie grabbed them up again and shook them in her hand.
“There it is again!” she exclaimed.
She stuffed her hand into one of the pockets and pulled it out, holding another four coins.
“Look,” she said, “they are even bigger than the others!”
“How much are they worth, do you think?” I asked.
“These all say ten dollars on them…. Show me one of the others.”
I pulled one out of the pocket of my dress and handed it to Katie.
“This says five dollars. So that’s five, ten, fifteen … plus these four … that’s fifty-five dollars.”
Katie now dove into what remained in the chest and threw everything out till it was completely empty. Then she searched and shook every piece of clothing. But there were no more coins.
“Fifty-five dollars is a fortune, Miss Katie,” I said when she was through. “You’re practically rich!”
“But it’s not mine. These must belong to my uncle Ward.”
“Didn’t you say he was dead?”
“I don’t know. I think so.”
“But even if he isn’t, he wouldn’t mind you using it. And he ain’t coming back anyway. Didn’t you say he hadn’t been here in years?”
Katie nodded. “It would be nice to pay off the bill at Mrs. Hammond’s,” she said. “I don’t like her scowling at us.”
“I think she’d scowl just the same,” I said. “But then you could buy other things you need too.”
“I wonder if it’s enough to pay off my mama’s loan at the bank.”
“How much is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to look at my mama’s papers tomorrow. But right now, let’s get some sleep.”
“Where are you going to keep the gold coins,