of hope and confidence about her at
which I greatly wondered.

Once there was a knock at the door, and George Woodley came to wish me
good-bye. He seemed in high spirits, and to have quite recovered from
the effects of our adventure, except that his left arm hung in a sling.

"My eye, Master Eden!" he exclaimed, "for the same rate of pay I
believe I'd go through it all again!"

"What d'you mean?" I asked.

"Why, look here, sir," he continued, producing a crisp five-pound note
from his pocket. "That there Mr. Denny gave me this! I didn't want to
take it, but he said I deserved it for laying the ghost. What's more,
I'm thinking before long of giving up the road and settling down in a
little dairy-farm business, which the missis and I could look after
between our two selves; and Master Miles has promised, when I do, that
he'll start my stock with one of the best beasts he's got on the farm.
Well, good-bye, sir. I hope I shall see you again quite well when
you're on your way back to school in January."

Liberal I knew the Coverthornes always were, but it astonished me
rather that they should bestow such handsome gifts on Woodley, to whom
they were really under no obligation. If it had been my own parents,
the case would have been different; for the man had certainly saved my
life, and I fully intended to ask my father to send him a suitable
reward.

On the third day after my strange and unceremonious arrival at the old
house, I was so far recovered as to be able to get up in the afternoon
and spend a few hours downstairs. Being for a time alone with Miles in
the parlour, my thoughts returned to the subject of his future.

"Miles," I said, "do tell me what you are going to do next year. Is
your uncle Nicholas still determined to take away half the land?"

"As far as I know, that's his intention--at present," was the reply.

There was something about the way in which the last two words were
uttered which made me prick up my ears.

"Look here! why did Mr. Denny give such a handsome present to George
Woodley?" I asked. "And why did you promise him that cow?"

"I suppose we can give him what presents we like, as long as the things
are ours to give," retorted Miles, smiling.

Another recollection had just flashed across my mind.

"Miles, Mr. Denny said that we had discovered something more important
than the hidden chamber. What did he mean?"

My companion turned away from me with a queer laugh.

"I'm