rather an eager delight and excitement that was in
itself encouragement and stimulus.

"Cuthbert, what meanest thou?"

"Verily no more and no less than I say. Listen, Kate. I too am a
like sufferer with others of the race of Trevlyn. I have nor
wealth, nor hope, nor future, save what I may carve out for myself;
and my heritage, as well as yours, lies buried somewhere in these
great woods, no man may say where. It came upon me as I sat in pain
and darkness, the last hour I passed beneath my father's roof, that
this might be the work given to me to do--to restore to the house
of Trevlyn the treasure whose loss has been so sore a blow. I said
as much to my sister when we bid each other adieu in the moonlit
chantry; and she bid me, ere I started on the quest, come hither to
you and ask the story of that loss. We know but little ourselves;
our father tells us naught, and it is but a word here and a word
there we have gathered. But you know--"

"We know well. We have been told the story by our mother from the
days of our childhood. I trow we know all there is to know. Why
hast thou not asked before, Cuthbert?"

The lad blushed a little at the question.

"Methought it would sound but folly in your ears," he said. "It was
easier to speak to Petronella in the dark chantry. Kate, wilt thou
tell me all thou knowest of this lost treasure? How and wherefore
was it lost, and why has no man since been able to find it?"

"Ay, wherefore? that is what we all ask," answered Kate, with eyes
that flashed and glowed. "When we were children and stayed once a
few months here, we spent days together scouring the woods and
digging after it. We were sure we should succeed where others had
failed; but the forest yet keeps its secret, and the treasure has
never seen the light. Again and yet again have I said to Philip
that were I a man I would never rest till it was found. But he
shakes his wise head and says that our grandfather and father and
many another have wasted time and expended large sums of money on
the work of discovery, and without success. All of our name begin
to give credence to the story that the concealed treasure was found
and spirited away by the gipsy folks, who hated our house, and that
it has long since been carried beyond the seas and melted into coin
there. Father and Philip alike believe that the Trevlyns will see
it again no more."

"Dost thou believe that, too?"

"Nay, not I. I believe it will yet come back to