age with the door
shut behind them, and the officers keeping watch at the foot of the
tower without.

These five listened to the sounds of busy picks within the tower. They
could hear the ring of iron on stones and the panting of men engaged
in severe toil.

"The marshal is preparing for flight," whispered the Duke, exultantly.
"He is interring his treasures. He has been warned. But we will be
overspeedy for him."

And he chuckled in his satisfaction so loudly that Malise, using no
ceremony with Duke or varlet at such a season, put his hand over his
mouth.

Then one by one they crawled along the narrow passage on their hands
and knees, and presently from a little balcony, plastered like a
swallow's nest on the inner wall of the tower, they found themselves
looking down upon a strange scene.

A flight of steps led slantwise to the bottom, and at the foot of the
tower, stripped to the waist, they beheld two men busily filling great
sacks with a curious cargo.

The turret had never been finished. It contained nothing whatever
except the staircase. So far as Sholto could see there was not even a
window anywhere. The door by which they had entered and another which
evidently led into the interior of the castle were its only outlets.
The earth at the bottom had remained as it had been left by the
builders, who surely must have thought that no madder architectural
freak was ever planned than this shut tower of the Castle of Machecoul
with its blank walls and sordid accoutrement.

But most strange of all, the original earth had been covered to the
depth of a foot or more with dark objects, the true significance of
which did not appear from the distance of the little gallery where the
party of five had stationed themselves.

The two men at work below had brought torches with them, which were
fastened to the walls by iron spikes. The smoke from these hung in
heavy masses about the tower, still further diminishing the clearness
with which the watchers aloft could observe what went on below.

One of the workmen was tall and spare, with the forward thrust of head
and neck seen in vultures and other unclean birds. The other, who held
the sacks while his companion shovelled, was on the contrary stout and
short, of a notably jovial, rubicund countenance, in habit like the
hostler of an inn, or perhaps a well-to-do carrier upon the roads.

The two worked without speaking, as if the task were distasteful. When
one sack was