Ruby's Reward — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

will betray some anxiety and consciousness when he discovers the mischief that I haye done. If he does not, I shall feel sure that he is innocent of haying concealed it, and I will give it to him, trusting to his sense of justice or fear of the law to do what is right. But where shall [ hide it?’ she added, looking anxious and perplexed. Her eyes wandered around the room in search of some safe place, until it finally fell upon a picture hanging over the mantel. The thin board which protected the canvas on the back had becomé warped a little on one side. and stood out a trifle from the frame. She deftly slipped the envelope between this and the canvas, pressed the board tightly back into place, and fastened it there with a stout pin, and then went back to her chair, trembling like a leaf, and tried to calm her excited nerves somewhat before attempt- ing the next act in the thrilling drama. CHAPTER XXXVII. MR. CARPENTER’S SUSPICIONS. At last Ruby arose with an air of determination, and proceeding directly to the parlor, approached the chess players, who appeared to be wholly ab- sorbed in their game and entirely unconscious that anything unusual had been transpiring in the ad- joining room. She stood looking down upon the board for several moments without speaking, and hardly knowing how to broach the subject on her mind. “Ig anything the matter, Miss Ruby?’ Edmund Carpenter asked, glancing up at her with sonie sur- prise, for it was an unheard-of thing for her to come into his presence voluntarily; while something in her manner impressed him strangely. “Finish your game—I see you are nearly through —then I will tell you,” she answered, without lifting her eyes from the board. COMETS CMD