Ruby's Reward — page 286: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

This gave her a chance to squeeze in behind the | desk, and, bracing her knee against the back of it and her shoulders against the wall, she gave a vigor- | ous push, and it rolled opt still farther, But the panel aguwinstwhich her knee was braced suddenly gave way, and Pipped down out of sight | into the desk. : The peor little mouse, however, had been fright- ened from his place ott concealment, and Timothy, now all alert, captured him in the twinkling of an eye, and, growling out his satisfaction, bore him in triumph to the mat before the grate, where he per- aa all sorts of graceful antics with his squeaking victim. Ruby looked a trifle dismayed over the mischief that she had wrought, ang reaching forward into the aperture, she drew forth the broken panel with «a view to aeeing how it could be replaced. As she did so, her hand came in contact with a paper which appeured to have slipped down behind a drawer. — She drew this ont also, and found it to be an official looking envelope, covered with dust and cobwebs, and containing quite a bulky document. There was some writing on the back. Brushing the dust from it, she held it toward the light, and read: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF RALPH CARPENTER, Oct, 15th, 18—. All the color faded instantly from the young girl's face, and a wild, startled look came into her blue eyes as she comprehended the significance of those words. She knew at once that she had found the missing will, over which—or, rather, over the absence of aa had been so much speculation, and *