is pocket for the fairy bottle.

But it was not in his pocket.

"What have I done with my fairy treasure?" cried Randal, jumping up.
Then he stood still quite suddenly, as if he saw something strange.

He touched Jean on the shoulder, making a sign to her not to speak.

Jean rose quietly, and looked where Randal pointed, and this was what
she saw.

She looked over a corner of the old grassy ditch, just where the marsh
and the yellow flowers came nearest to it.

Here there stood three tall grey stones, each about as high as a man.
Between them, with her back to the single stone, and between the two
others facing Randal and Jean, the old nurse was kneeling.

If she had looked up, she could hardly have seen Randal and Jean, for
they were within the ditch, and only their eyes were on the level of the
rampart.

Besides, she did not look up; she was groping in the breast of her dress
for something, and her eyes were on the ground.

"What can the old woman be doing?" whispered Randal. "Why, she has got
my fairy bottle in her hand!"

Then he remembered how he had shown her the bottle, and how she had gone
out without giving it back to him.

Jean and he watched, and kept very quiet.

They saw the old nurse, still kneeling, take the stopper out of the
black strange bottle, and turn the open mouth gently on her hand. Then
she carefully put in the stopper, and rubbed her eyes with the palm of
her hand. Then she crawled along in their direction, very slowly, as if
she were looking for something in the grass.

Then she stopped, still looking very closely at the grass.

Next she jumped to her feet with a shrill cry, clapping her hands; and
then she turned, and was actually _running_ along the edge of the marsh,
towards Fairnilee.

"Nurse!" shouted Randal, and she stopped suddenly, in a fright, and let
the fairy bottle fall.

It struck on a stone, and broke to pieces with a jingling sound, and the
few drops of strange water in it ran away into the grass.

"Oh, ma bairns, ma bairns, what have you made me do?" cried the old
nurse pitifully. "The fairy gift is broken, and maybe the Gold of
Fairnilee, that my eyes have looked on, will ne'er be seen again."

[Illustration: Chapter Thirteen]

CHAPTER XIII.--_The Gold of Fairnilee_.

RANDAL and Jean went to the old woman and comforted her, though they
could not understand what she meant. She cried and sobbed, and threw her
arms about; but, by degrees, they found