couldst find it!
But how canst thou hope to do so when so many besides have failed?"

"That is not the fashion in which men think when they mean to
triumph, my sister," said Cuthbert, and she knew by his voice that
he was smiling. "How this thing may be done I know not. Where the
long-lost treasure be hid I know not, nor that I may ever be the
one to light on it. But this I do know, that it is somewhere; that
some hand buried it; that even now some living soul may know the
secret of the hiding place. Petronella, hast thou ever thought of
it? Hast thou ever wondered if our father may know aught of it?"

"Our father! nay, Cuthbert; but he would be the first to show the
place and claim his share of spoil."

"I know not that. He hates Sir Richard. Methinks he loved not his
own brother, the good knight's father. He was in the house what
time the treasure vanished. Might he not have had some hand in the
mystery?"

The girl shook her head again doubtfully.

"Nay, how can I say? Yet methinks our father, who sorely laments
his poverty and dependence for a home upon Sir Richard's kindness,
would no longer live at the old Gate House had he riches hidden
away upon which he might lay his hand. Nay, Cuthbert, methinks thou
art not on the right track in thinking of him. But I do not rightly
know the story of that lost treasure."

"Marry, nor I neither. I have heard our father rave of it. I have
heard a word here, a whisper there, but never a full account of the
matter. But that there is some great treasure lost or made away
with all men who know aught of the Trevlyns know well. And if, as
all affirm, this same treasure is but buried in some hiding place,
the clue to which none possesses, why should not I find it? Why
should not I be the man at last to track and to discover it?"

Why not indeed? Petronella, full of ardent youthful imaginings,
fired instantly with the thought. Why should not her brother do
this thing? Why not indeed? She looked at him with eyes that shone
in the gloom like stars.

"Yes, Cuthbert, be it thine to do what none else has been able. Be
it thine to discover this lost treasure. Would that I could help
thee in that quest! But I can give thee just this one morsel of
counsel. Start not till thou hast been to the Chase and heard all
the story from our cousins there. They will tell thee what there is
to know, and he is twice armed who has this knowledge."

"I will follow thy good counsel, my sister, and