Feltram looked grim and agitated when Sir Bale came up to him, as he
stood on the flat-stone by which the boat was moored.

"You found him?" said he.

"Yes."

"The lady in black was there?"

"She was."

"And you played with him?"

"Yes."

"And what is that in your hand?"

"A bag of something, I fancy money; it is heavy; he threw it after me.
We shall see just now; let us get away."

"He gave you some of his wine to drink?" said Feltram, looking darkly in
his face; but there was a laugh in his eyes.

"Yes; of course I drank it; my object was to please him."

"To be sure."

The faint wind that carried them across the lake had quite subsided by
the time they had reached the side where they now were.

There was now not wind enough to fill the sail, and it was already
evening.

"Give me an oar; we can pull her over in little more than an hour," said
Sir Bale; "only let us get away."

He got into the boat, sat down, and placed the leather bag with its
heavy freightage at his feet, and took an oar. Feltram loosed the rope
and shoved the boat off; and taking his seat also, they began to pull
together, without another word, until, in about ten minutes, they had
got a considerable way off the Cloostedd shore.

The leather bag was too clumsy a burden to conceal; besides, Feltram
knew all about the transaction, and Sir Bale had no need to make a
secret. The bag was old and soiled, and tied about the "neck" with a
long leather thong, and it seemed to have been sealed with red wax,
fragments of which were still sticking to it.

He got it open, and found it full of guineas.

"Halt!" cried Sir Bale, delighted, for he had half apprehended a trick
upon his hopes; "gold it is, and a lot of it, by Jove!"

Feltram did not seem to take the slightest interest in the matter.
Sulkily and drowsily he was leaning with his elbow on his knee, and it
seemed thinking of something far away. Sir Bale could not wait to count
them any longer. He reckoned them on the bench, and found two thousand.

It took some time; and when he had got them back into the leather bag,
and tied them up again, Feltram, with a sudden start, said sharply,

"Come, take your oar--unless you like the lake by night; and see, a wind
will soon be up from Golden Friars!"

He cast a wild look towards Mardykes Hall and Snakes Island, and
applying himself to his oar, told Sir Bale to take his also; and nothing
loath, the Baronet did so.

It was slow wor