Such sturdy honesty surprised him, mystified him, and he was convinced that there must have been some other motive behind her refusal to become his father's beneficiary.

He watched her closely for a moment and then, thinking he had discovered the motive, he said in a voice of dry mockery: "I reckon you didn't take it because there was nothin' to take." "Besides the land and the buildings, he left about twenty thousand dollars in cash," she informed him quietly.
"Where is it ?" demanded Calumet quickly.
Betty smiled.

"That," she said dryly, "is what I want to talk to you about." Again the consciousness of advantage shone in her eyes.
Calumet felt that it would be useless to question her and so he leaned back in his chair and regarded her saturninely.
"Soon after your father became afflicted with his last sickness," continued Betty; "he called me to him and took me into his confidence.
He talked to me about you--about the way he had treated you.

Both he and your mother had been, he said, victims of uncontrollable tempers, and were beset with elemental passions which he was certain had descended to you.

In fact, because of the hatred your mother bore you--" She hesitated.
"Well, that too, belongs to the story which you will hear about Taggart when you have the patience," she continued.