and silence. After a
few minutes' rest he rose, and having filled his cap with some delicious
berries, sat down, almost buried amongst the cool, green plants, to
enjoy them. They were soon finished, but he was still too lazy to move,
and rolling himself down till the cranberries nearly met above him, he
fell fast asleep.

He was awakened by the sound of voices, and, thinking it was some of his
schoolfellows, he lay still, meaning to surprise them. He was so well
hidden that he knew he could not be discovered unless he moved. Then he
realised that it was not his comrades, but the two strangers from the
train.

'Look at all those boys over there,' said the tall man. 'It was
fortunate that we put them off the scent. If they had chosen to spend
the day up here it would have upset our plans nicely.'

'Are you sure, though, that they are all there?' asked the other,
doubtfully. 'There were thirty-two in the train, and I can only count
twenty-five yellow caps now.'

'You are right, Schmidt,' answered the tall man, after a short pause.
'And who can tell where the others may be?'

'Not I! We must put off our digging till we are sure that they have all
gone away for the night.'

'We shall miss the American boat,' said his friend, angrily, 'and all
because of a pack of schoolboys!'

'Not necessarily. If we return to Freistadt by the nine o'clock train
instead of by the five o'clock, we ought still to catch the steamer at
Hamburg. That is the worst of taking things from a well-known man like
Rosenthal. He makes it unsafe to dispose of a single recognisable thing
in Germany. We were lucky to get rid of the coins, even.'

'And a mere nothing we got for them,' replied the grumbler. 'Are you
certain you remember where we buried the rest of the collection?'

'Under this stone here, by the big tree, and it has evidently never been
moved since we left it. See, the cranberries are already beginning to
grow round it.'

'Which shall we take this time? I wish we could get the stuff all sold
and done with!'

'So do I! but we cannot take too much to one country. If we make a good
haul in America, we will return, and try and see what we can do in
England with the rest.'

'If we cannot dig now, what are we to do?' asked the tall man,
disgustedly.

'We must go on to the Observatory, and pass the time there. There is
nothing else to be done.'

When they had quite gone, Franz raised himself slowly. There was the
great stone, just