“What!” cried Cuthbert, “did some mischance befall them?”

“That is a thing that no man knows,” answered Joanna darkly.  “It is as I have said:  Long Robin, and he alone, ever came back to the mill.  He was five days gone, and men said he looked ten years older in those days.  He told a strange tale.  He said that the treasure had been found and secreted, but that the sight of the gold had acted like strong drink upon his seven comrades:  that they had vowed to carry it away and convert it into money, that they might be rich for the rest of their days; and that when he had opposed them, bidding them remember the words of the queen, they had set upon him, had bound him hand and foot, and had left him to perish in a cave, whence he had only been released by the charity of a passer by, when he was well-nigh starved with hunger and cold.  He said that he had gone at once to the place where the treasure had been hid, and had found all of it gone.  The seven covetous men had plainly carried it off, and he prophesied that they would never be seen again.”

“And they never were?”

“Never!” answered Joanna, in that same dark way; “for they were all dead men!”

“Dead! how came they so?”

“Listen, and I will tell thee.  I cannot prove my words.  The fate of the seven lies wrapped in mystery; but Esther vows that they were all slain in the heart of the forest by Long Robin.  She is as certain of it as though she saw the deed.  She knows that as the men were carrying their last loads to the hiding place, wherever that might be, Long Robin lay in wait and slew them one by one, taking them unawares and plunging his knife into the neck of each, so that they fell with never a cry.  She knows it from strange words uttered by him in sleep; knows it from the finding in the forest not many years since of a number of human bones and seven skulls, all lying near together in one place.  Some woodmen found the ghastly remains; and from that day forward none has cared to pass that way.  It was whispered that it was the work of fairies or gnomes, and the dell is shunned by all who have ever heard the tale.”

“As the lines say!” cried Cuthbert, in great excitement.  “Thinkest thou that it is in that dell that the treasure lies hid?”

“Esther thinks so, but she knows not; and I have hunted and hunted in vain for traces of digging and signs of disturbance in the ground, but I have sought in vain.  Long Robin keeps his secret well.  If he knows the place, no living soul shares his knowledge.  It may be that long since all has been removed.  It may be he has vast wealth stored up in some other country, awaiting the moment when he shall go forth to claim it.”

A puzzled look crossed Cuthbert’s face.  He put his hand to his head.

“Thou speakest of Robin as though he were yet alive, and yet thou hast said thou thinkest him dead.  And there is Miriam—­surely she knows all.  I am yet more than half in the dark.”