hat would indicate
some track used by Robin. Cuthbert shrewdly suspected that he would
not be able to resist the temptation of going frequently to the
spot where the buried treasure lay, to see if the ground remained
undisturbed, and he thought that the surest way of discovering this
spot was to seek for traces likely to be left by him; or, failing
these, to watch patiently from some obscure spot till the gipsy
came again to the dell, when it was probable he might betray the
secret by his own movements.

"If I dig and delve before the clue is mine, I may chance to put
him on his guard, and find nothing. No; I will be patient--I will
be very cautious. Success comes to him that can wait. Long Robin is
a foe not to be despised or trifled with; I can tell that from his
own words and Joanna's. He would take a hundred lives to save his
golden secret. He is cautious and cunning and wary. I must try to
be the same."

All that long summer's day Cuthbert prowled up and down the dell,
searching for some trace, however slight, which should give him the
clue, and searching in vain. The only path where the undergrowth
was in any way trodden was the one by which he and Robin alike
approached the well, the old, half-obliterated track that once had
been so freely used. All around the sides of the dell, fern and
bramble, hazel and undergrowth of all kinds, grew in wild
confusion. Search as he would, Cuthbert could find nothing like a
path of any kind. Did Robin indeed trust to that tangled
undergrowth to keep his secret hid? And if so, what chance was
there of its being found unless the whole dell was dug up?

A short while back it seemed so much to have found out this dell.
When he had been resolved to search the whole forest through, no
wonder the task had been practically impossible; but when he had
had indications of a confined locality, he had looked upon his work
as well-nigh accomplished, and had come here with a heart full of
high hopes. And now he was confronted by difficulties that appeared
almost as insurmountable as before; for he plainly saw the
hopelessness of attempting single-handed to delve the whole dell
over. Robin would return before the task was more than begun. He
would guess the import, would set a close watch, and would slay the
bold invader of his haunted dell without pity or remorse. Whilst
the only other plan, that of bringing a gang of men to work strong
enough to be a guard to themselves, was simply out