With a brutal and almost diabolical laugh, Long Robin rose to his feet and leaned over the well.  He seemed to be raising from it some heavy weight, and Cuthbert heard a heavy thud fall upon the grass.

“Now, thou shalt go to join the lost treasure.  The Trevlyns when they find it will find their lost kinsman, too!  Ha, ha! they are welcome to that find; they are welcome to it!” and the man stooped to lift the bound and helpless Cuthbert in his strong arms.

Cuthbert closed his eyes.  He knew well what was coming.  A fall, a sullen splash, one brief ineffectual struggle, and then black darkness.  He tried to breathe a prayer, but could form no words.  He thought of Cherry, of Petronella, and sharp stabs of pain seemed to run through him.  One minute more and all would be over.  But what an endless minute that was, whilst he felt the grip upon his body growing firmer as the giant prepared to lift him.

What was that?

“Crack!”—­a sudden flash from the dark underwood, and with a loud cry his captor dropped him, and staggered backwards, to fall a few paces farther on, where he lay rigid and motionless.  Then from the thicket there came the sound of a quick sharp cry, and a slim figure rushed forward with the gasping question: 

“Is he dead?  Oh, have I killed him?”

And Cuthbert, raising his head, and scarce believing aught of this could be anything but a fevered dream, uttered the one word: 

“Petronella!”

Chapter 17:  Brother And Sister.

“Petronella! thou here!”

“Brother—­brother mine—­art thou hurt?”

“Never a whit, though I looked to be a dead man ere this.  Sister, take my knife and cut my bonds; yon man may rise again, and I must be free to defend myself and thee.”

Petronella cast a scared and fearful glance at the long dark figure lying face downwards upon the sward, showing signs of life only by a spasmodic twitching of the limbs; and then drawing Cuthbert’s long hunting knife from his belt, she cut the cords that bound his hands and feet, and in another moment he sprang up and shook himself, keeping a wary eye all the while upon the prostrate foe.  But he did not go to his side at once; he was too keenly aroused and interested by this sudden appearance of his sister.

“Petronella!  I can scarce credit my senses.  How comest thou here, and at such an hour?”

“I am doing as thou biddest me,” she answered in a low voice:  “I am flying from our home, even as thou wast forced to fly.  I verily believe that thou art right, and that our father is well-nigh mad.  I dared not remain.  Even old Martha feared to linger longer under that roof.  She has found safe refuge, I trust, at Trevlyn Chase.  Thou didst go there, my brother, after parting from me?”

“Ay, verily I did, and stayed there a matter of some two weeks, ever hoping to see thy face again, and to hear how it fared with thee.  But thou camest not.”