Ruby's Reward — page 287: what you’re looking at

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

But how had it come to be there, wedged between the back of the desk and a drawer or compartment 3 Could it have slipped there by accident, or had it been heiped into its hiding place by a pair of guilty hands ? What should she do with it now that she had found it? Should she call Edmund Carpenter and deliver it into his possession, or should she keep her own counsel until she could confer with the gentleman who had been Mr, Ralph Carpenter’s lawyer ?"' It would seem that Edmund had the best right to the document, and she would not have hesitated a moment, had she believed him to be an honorable man. The fact that a will existed, proved to her that Mr. Ralph eet had bequeathed a share of his prop- erty to Walter, and knowing how Edmund hated him, how he had begrudged him even a home, not to men- tion his recent persecution, made her feel that the man might even now do something ge See to pre- vent him from coming into his share of the property. Something seemed to tell her that if would not be safe to give it to him—that he might, ina moment of passion, and reckless ot consequences, destroy it be- fore any one could ascertain its contents, and then | the wrong that had been done would never be righted, These thoughts, and many others, passed rapidly through her mind as she stood there holding that sacred document in her hand, her eyes riveted upon those thrilling words, “Last Will and Testament,” ete. “What shall I do?’ she said, over and over, to her- self, while she kept glancing toward the door, as if fearful some one would enter before she could decide the important question, At last she lifted her head with a resolute air. “T do not dare to give it to him to-night,” she mur- mured. “I will conceal it somewhere, then I will call him, tell him I have broken his desk. Ifhe knows ot anything about this having been nideeictne eat