“We’ll be here ’til dark at your rate,” I said, shoveling at a speed of which I would never have dreamed I was capable. I was a good two feet down by that time. At about four feet, I found a couple of rusty nails and a piece of rotting board that could have been part of a coffin.

Jack came down the path shortly after that, limping along with his cane.

“What in the name of God are you doing?” he yelled.

“Getting some exercise,” I said, not pausing. Father Jackson grinned feebly.

“This is desecration, Father! I’m surprised that you’d take part in it.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Father Jackson threw away his shovel and climbed out of the hole.

“Maggie, for God’s sake, a member of my family is buried there.”

“Not here. There’s no one buried here.” I was ready to quit anyway. “And apparently there’s no treasure chest either,” I added as I threw out the shovel and reached up to let Father Jackson pull me out of the hole.

“What treasure chest?”

“I found a letter upstairs that said General Caine had buried some money here.”

That grabbed my husband. “How much money?”

“I don’t know. There’s supposed to be a box or chest with a lot of gold coins in it, but it’s not here, as you can see.”

“Where’s the letter? Let me see it.”

“I’ll show it to you later. Go back to the house now. And don’t say anything about this to Duff or Franny. We don’t want them out here desecrating your graveyard.”

He went. Father Jackson stood watching me unhappily as I began to fill in the hole.

“Why couldn’t you have told him the truth?” Father Jackson asked.

“Too complicated. Also, he wouldn’t have believed it. Are you going to help me or stand there and criticize?”

He picked up his shovel again and in a few minutes we had the hole filled and leveled. Then we took the tools back to the barn. I showed Father Jackson the ladder to the loft.

“Climb up and see what’s up there,” I told him.

“Will that thing hold me? It looks shaky.”

He went up cautiously, hesitating a couple of times. I had to keep urging him on, but he finally made it into the loft. He disappeared for a couple of minutes and then came back.

“There’s nothing up here but a lot of mice and a few more old tools,” he said.

“All right, come down.” He did and then I added, “I knew there wouldn’t be any coffins up there.”

“How did you know?”

“I just knew. What’s left of General Duffin Caine and his mistress, Margaret Dorn, is at the Weber house. They were in the cellar, but I think they’re in the meeting room now.”