felt, and
Sir Richard Trevlyn made generous arrangements for the cost of his
daughter. But there was something altogether quaint and curious in
the life of the house, and Kate thought it exceedingly interesting
even before the first evening had passed.

Yet all the while she was longing to hear Petronella's tale, and
was glad when the tapestry work was put away, and formal good
nights had been exchanged. The girls ran up to the guest chamber
prepared for Kate, which they had agreed to share together from
that time forth. It did not take them long to slip into bed; and
old Dyson, the waiting woman, who also acted as housekeeper, came
quickly in to see that the lights were safely extinguished, after
which only the glow of the fire illuminated the darkness of the big
room; and Kate in an eager whisper begged Petronella to lose no
time in telling her tale.

With breathless eagerness she heard of the girl's flight from home,
and of her rescue of Cuthbert from the very jaws of death. She
could not understand Petronella's shuddering horror at the thought
of having killed a man.

"I would have killed fifty, and been glad to rid the earth of them
were they such wretches as Long Robin!" she cried.

Then in deep silence she heard of Cuthbert's dive into the well,
and of the golden flagon he had brought up as an earnest of what
was to come. Petronella went on to say that, having made absolutely
sure of the presence of the treasure in the well, Cuthbert had then
directed all his energies to detecting the sources of the hidden
springs that fed it, and after long search and patience had
satisfied himself that it was filled by two, both rising in the
high ground not far distant.

He had then set to work to see how these waters could be diverted
so as to leave the well dry at his will; and though it had taken
months to perform this feat, and had only been done at the cost of
immense labour and trouble, still it had been done, and one day in
early September the brother and sister had stood together to see
the water ebbing slowly and more slowly away, until at last their
eyes beheld a vast quantity of silver and gold lying exposed at the
bottom of the well, and knew that the lost treasure of Trevlyn was
theirs indeed.

But their labours were not yet ended. It was plain to both that
they must quickly find some safe spot whither they could transport
it all, else some passing traveller might even now see and report
what he had seen