And it was now the custodian of her secret,--a secret as innocent and childlike as her previous youthful fancies,--but still a secret known only to herself.
One day she had come upon the rotting ribs of a wreck on the beach.

Its distance from the tide line, its position, and its deep imbedding of sand, showed that it was of ancient origin.

An omnivorous reader of all that pertained to the history of California, Jenny had in fancy often sailed the seas in one of those mysterious treasure-ships that had skirted the coast in bygone days, and she at once settled in her mind that her discovery was none other than a castaway Philippine galleon.
Partly from her reserve, and partly from a suddenly conceived plan, she determined to keep its existence unknown to her father, as careful inquiry on her part had found it was equally unknown to the neighbors.
For this shy, imaginative young girl of eighteen had convinced herself that it might still contain a part of its old treasure.

She would dig for it herself, without telling anybody.

If she failed, no one would know it; if she were successful, she would surprise her father and perhaps retrieve their fortune by less vulgar means than their present toil.