reasure, since it
really lies beneath our hand. A curse upon Long Robin, say I, for
keeping it hid all these years! It was a scurvy trick! and Miriam
was privy to it. I will raise no hand to help her. She may die with
her vow unfulfilled for all I care. Had she but acted fairly by us,
then would we have given yon lad up to her tender mercies; but not
now--not now!"

A murmur of assent ran through the whole party. The only one to
demur was the first speaker.

"The old woman got her death blow when Robin's corpse was found.
She will not last many weeks more, they say. I should well like to
bring her a bit of happiness at the end; and her one cry is for
vengeance upon the Trevlyn brood. She would well like to have yon
prisoner brought bound to her, Why not lead him first to Tyrrel and
then to Miriam?"

"When Tyrrel has him, he will decree what is done with him, not
we," said another voice. "He has no love for Miriam and her
insensate hate. Miriam and Long Robin have both played us false;
and Tyrrel loves the dark-eyed Joanna, and she will not stoop to
any deed of cruelty or tyranny. He will have a care how he treats
the boy over whom her mantle has once been thrown. But the secret
of the gold he must and will have. We will not let him go without
that."

"To Tyrrel then!" cried several voices with one accord. "I trow he
will have scant patience with any son of the house of Trevlyn,
since he was so bested by those other Trevlyns but two short
evenings back. He will be glad enow to have this lad brought before
him, for he verily feared that the whole brood had found shelter
within the gates of the Cross Way House."

Cuthbert listened eagerly to these last words, which told him that
his kinsmen at least had escaped peril and had found a safe shelter
where the treasure lay. Knowing that this was so, and that the
treasure was under their safe keeping, even did these men throw
aside the tradition of years and make a raid upon the home of the
Wyverns, his mind became somewhat calmed, although his own fate was
terribly uncertain, and he might have to pay the penalty of his
rashness with his life.

The rowers bent to their oars once again when this knotty point had
been settled. They rowed on steadily for a short time, and then out
of the darkness came a sharp clear hail.

"Who goes there?"

"Friends. We have caught the quarry; we are bringing him to
Tyrrel."

"Good. He has been waiting with impatience this two hours