ound gold enough in the pockets of the
travellers they waylaid to supply their daily needs; the free life
of the forest was dear to them, and left them no lingering longings
after wealth that might prove a burden instead of a joy to its
possessor.

Out of those who had been living when the treasure was stolen and
lost, only Miriam and Long Robin (if indeed it were he) and Esther
remained alive. Esther had retired to London, and was lost to her
people. Miriam had done everything to encourage the belief that the
treasure had been made away with by the seven helpers who had gone
forth, but had never returned to tell the tale. Esther, who had
thought very differently, had confined her suspicious for a time to
her own bosom, and later on had spoken of them only to Joanna. Upon
her had she laid the charge to strive to make restitution, now that
vengeance had been inflicted and the curse of the old witch
fulfilled. To Joanna it belonged to restore prosperity to the house
of Wyvern through the daughters' sons, and it was for her to strive
to learn where the treasure lay, and give notice of the spot to the
Trevlyns.

The queen had done all that she could. She had watched with close
attention the pair with whom Esther believed the secret to lie.
Miriam, her mother, knew not the spot, of that she was convinced;
but she did know that the treasure had been hidden somewhere in the
forest by her husband, and that the exact place was known to the
white-bearded man whom she and others called Long Robin.

About that weird old man, said to be well-nigh a hundred years old,
a flavour of romance existed. Men looked upon him as bearing a
charmed existence. He went his lonely way unheeded by all. He was
said to have dealings with the fairies and the pixies of the
forest. All regarded him with a species of awe. He had drawn, as it
were, a charmed circle about himself and his ways. None desired to
interfere with him; none questioned his coming or going. All
brought to him a share of the spoil taken on the roads as a matter
of right and due, but none looked to receive aught in return from
him. He and Miriam, from their great age, lived as it were apart.
They took the place of patriarchal heads of the tribe, and were
treated with reverence and filial respect by all.

The question Cuthbert had pressed home on Joanna was why, this
being so, the treasure had not been moved away before this, so that
Miriam should end her days in peace and luxur