a reward also. Here are twenty pistoles; tell him
not to throw them away, but to lay them by where some day they will be
useful to him."

Paolo was astonished indeed when Hector handed him the general's
present. He could at first hardly believe that it was meant for him.

"Why, master," he said, "it would buy me a farm up in the hills!"

"Not a very large one, Paolo, but I daresay that you will add to it;
still, this is a good beginning, and some more opportunities may come in
your way."

"What shall I do with them, master?"

"That I cannot say. Certainly you cannot carry them about with you. Do
you know anyone to whom you could entrust them?"

Paolo shook his head. "There is never any knowing who is an honest man
and who is not," he said. "I will bury them, master."

"But somebody might find them."

"No fear of that, sir. I will go a bit up the valley and bury them under
a big rock well above the river, so that it will not be reached in the
highest floods. They might lie there a hundred years without anyone
finding them, even if every soul in Susa knew that they were hidden
somewhere and went out to search for them."

"Very well; but be sure you take notice of the exact position of the
stone, or you may not be able to find it again yourself. One big stone
is a good deal like another. Choose a stone with a tree growing near it,
and make a cross with your knife on the bark. That will serve as a guide
to you, and you would recognize the stone by it even if you could not
find it in any other way."

"Thank you, master. I will go out tomorrow morning and choose my stone,
and then when it begins to get dark I will go out and bury my money
there. It would not do to hide it in the daytime, for even were there no
one on the road someone upon the hills might catch sight of me and come
down afterwards to see what I was disposing of."

"Well, I think that that is the best thing that you can do, Paolo. There
is certainly a danger in leaving it in anyone's hands, for when you
return to claim it, perhaps some years hence, you might find that he was
dead, or the place might be captured and burned down. Yes, I think
that hiding it is the safest way. You will be pleased to hear that the
general has given me a commission as captain."

"That is good news, indeed," the boy said. "I was just going to ask,
master, what he had done for you, because, though I went with you, it
was you who planned the business, and I only did as y