Knew it, too, when without her knowledge he had taken the last
dollar of the little nest-egg to make good the deficit owed Breen
& Co. over and above his margins, together with some other things
"not negotiable"--not our kind of collateral but "stuff" that
could "lie in the safe until he could make some other
arrangement," the cashier had said with the firm's consent.
Queer safe, that of Breen & Co., and queer things went into it.
Most of them were still there. Jack thought some jeweller had sent
part of his stock down for safe-keeping when he first came across
a tiny drawer of which Breen alone kept the key. Each object could
tell a story: a pair of diamond ear-rings surely could, and so
could four pearls on a gold chain, and perhaps, too, a certain
small watch, the case set with jewels. One of these days they may
be redeemed, or they may not, depending upon whether the owners
can scrape money enough together to pay the balances owed in cash.
But the four pearls on the gold chain are likely to remain there--
that poor fellow went overboard one morning off Nantucket Light,
and his secret went with him.
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