ided by all, for that no man who ventured in came forth alive.
Most likely this was the place; most likely the legend of fear
surrounding it was due to some exaggerated version of old Robin's
ghastly crime in bygone years.

Cuthbert gazed and gazed with a sense of weird fascination. He
fully believed that in some spot not many yards from where he stood
lay hidden the lost treasure of Trevlyn, and that the secret of
that resting place remained known to one man only in the whole
world; and that was the man before him!

A wild impulse seized Cuthbert to spring upon that bowed figure,
and, holding a knife to the man's throat, to demand a full
revelation of that secret as the price of life. Perhaps had he not
seen but an hour before how upright, powerful, and stalwart that
bending figure could be, he would have done it then and there. But
with that memory clear in his mind, together with his knowledge of
the perfectly unscrupulous character of the gipsy, he felt that
such a step would be the sheerest madness; and after gazing his
fill at the motionless figure, he softly crept away once more.

He lay hidden in the bushes till he heard Long Robin leave the dell
and go crashing through the underwood with heavy steps, cursing as
he went the two women who stood between him and his desire. It was
plain from his muttered words that he was going back to the camp
now. Plainly he had paid his visit to the hoard and found all safe
and undisturbed. Cuthbert was more and more convinced that the
treasure lay here, as Esther had always believed; and it would be
strange indeed, being so near, if he could not find it in time.

But he would not search tonight; he had the whole summer before
him. Plainly Long Robin was not going to take any immediate step
for the removal of the treasure; and during the last hours a great
longing had come upon Cuthbert to see Petronella again. He was
within ten miles of his old home now, and the thoughts of his
sister had been mingling with these other thoughts of the lost
treasure. Surely he could find his way to the Gate House from this
lonely dell, and once there, by making a signal at his sister's
window, he could advise her of his presence and gain a stolen
interview.

So taking his bearings from the moon, he struck boldly across the
lonely waste of forest that lay between him and his former home,
and soon found himself tramping over the ling and moss of the high
ridge of common land with which the