lace
you bid me, and only journey forth across the heath when the
morrow's sun be up."

"You will do well. And now farewell, for I must return. I will do
all that in me lies to watch over and guard Petronella. She shall
be to me as a sister, and I will act a brother's part by her, until
I may have won a right to call her something more. Have no fears
for her. I will die sooner than she shall suffer. Her father shall
not visit on her his wrath at your escape."

The cousins parted on excellent terms, and Cuthbert turned, with a
strange smile on his brave young face, for a last look at the old
Gate House, the gray masonry of which gleamed out between the dark
masses of the leafless trees, a single light flickering faintly in
an upper casement.

"Petronella's light!" murmured Cuthbert to himself. "I trow well
she is thinking of me and praying for me before the little shrine
in the turret. May the Holy Saints and Blessed Virgin watch over
and protect her! I trust the day may come ere long when I may have
power to rescue her from that evil home, and give to her a dower
that shall make her not unworthy of being Philip's wife."

By which it may be seen that Cuthbert's thoughts were still running
on the lost treasure, and that he had by no means relinquished his
dream of discovery through hearing how others had sought and
failed.

"If I may but win a little gold in these winter days when the
forest is too inhospitable to be scoured and searched, I can give
the whole of the summer to the quest. I will find these gipsies or
their descendants and live amongst them as one of them. I will
learn their ways, win their trust, and gradually discover all that
they themselves know. Who dare say that I may not yet be the one to
bring back the lost luck to the house of Trevlyn? Has it always
been the prosperous and rich that have won the greatest prize? A
humble youth such as I may do far more in the wild forest than
those who have been bred to ease and luxury, and have to keep state
and dignity."

Thus musing, Cuthbert rode slowly along in the light of the rising
moon, his thoughts less occupied with the things he was leaving
behind than with thoughts of the future and what it was to bring
forth. The lad had all the pride of his house latent within him,
and it delighted him to picture the day when he might return all
Sir Richard's benefits a thousandfold by coming to him with the
news of the lost treasure, and bidding him take the