n I'll step away back again. The
Search has just come into the bay, and they say she's been chased by a
French fleet.

"The Search?" said Oldbuck, reflecting a moment. "Oho!"

"Ay, ay, Captain Taffril's gun-brig, the Search."

"What? any relation to Search, No. II.?" said Oldbuck, catching at the
light which the name of the vessel seemed to throw on the mysterious
chest of treasure.

The mendicant, like a man detected in a frolic, put his bonnet before
his face, yet could not help laughing heartily.--"The deil's in you,
Monkbarns, for garring odds and evens meet. Wha thought ye wad hae laid
that and that thegither? Od, I am clean catch'd now."

"I see it all," said Oldbuck, "as plain as the legend on a medal of high
preservation--the box in which the' bullion was found belonged to the
gun-brig, and the treasure to my phoenix?"--(Edie nodded assent),--"and
was buried there that Sir Arthur might receive relief in his
difficulties?"

"By me," said Edie, "and twa o' the brig's men--but they didna ken its
contents, and thought it some bit smuggling concern o' the Captain's.
I watched day and night till I saw it in the right hand; and then, when
that German deevil was glowering at the lid o' the kist (they liked
mutton weel that licked where the yowe lay), I think some Scottish
deevil put it into my head to play him yon ither cantrip. Now, ye see,
if I had said mair or less to Bailie Littlejohn, I behoved till hae come
out wi' a' this story; and vexed would Mr. Lovel hae been to have it
brought to light--sae I thought I would stand to onything rather than
that."

"I must say he has chosen his confidant well," said Oldbuck, "though
somewhat strangely."

"I'll say this for mysell, Monkbarns," answered the mendicant, "that
I am the fittest man in the haill country to trust wi' siller, for I
neither want it, nor wish for it, nor could use it if I had it. But the
lad hadna muckle choice in the matter, for he thought he was leaving the
country for ever (I trust he's mistaen in that though); and the night
was set in when we learned, by a strange chance, Sir Arthur's sair
distress, and Lovel was obliged to be on board as the day dawned. But
five nights afterwards the brig stood into the bay, and I met the boat
by appointment, and we buried the treasure where ye fand it."

"This was a very romantic, foolish exploit," said Oldbuck: "why not
trust me, or any other friend?"

"The blood o' your sister's son," replied Edie, "w