nder his charge. Well, Mark, I don't know that it is any use
sitting up longer, we have plenty of time to talk the matter over; it is
four years yet before Millicent comes of age, though, of course, there
is nothing to prevent your setting out in quest of the treasure as soon
as you like. Still, there is no hurry about it."

"None whatever, father; but I don't mean to lose a day before I try to
get on the track of that villain Bastow."

CHAPTER VIII.

Mark was some hours before he went to sleep. The news that he had heard
that evening was strange and startling. Full of health and strength, the
fact that he was not, as he had always supposed, the heir to the estate
troubled him not at all. The fact that in four years he would come in
for some twelve thousand pounds was sufficient to prevent his feeling
any uneasiness as to his future; and indeed in some respects it was not
an unpleasant idea that, instead of being tied down to the estate, he
should be able to wander at will, visit foreign countries, and make his
own life.

In one respect he was sorry. His father had in the last year hinted more
than once that it would be a very nice arrangement if he were to make
up a match with his ward; he had laughed, and said that there would be
plenty of time for that yet. But the idea had been an agreeable one. He
was very fond of Millicent--fond, perhaps; in a cousinly way at present;
but at any rate he liked her far better than any of the sisters of his
friends. Of course she was only seventeen yet, and there was plenty of
time to think of marriage in another three years. Still, the thought
occurred to him several times that she was budding out into a young
woman, and every month added to her attractions. It was but the day
before he had said to himself that there was no reason to wait as long
as three years, especially as his father seemed anxious, and would
evidently be glad were the match to take place. Now, of course, he said
to himself, that was at an end. He had never given her any reason to
suppose that he cared for her, and now that she was the heiress and
he comparatively poor, she would naturally think that it was for the
estate, and not for herself, that she was wooed. Then there was the
question of this curiously lost treasure, with the mysterious clew that
led to nothing. How on earth was he to set about the quest? He puzzled
for a long time over this, till at last he fell asleep. He was roused by
Ramoo e