“Look there!” she said:  “it is that that has helped to hide the secret so long.  Robin is cunning.  He is deep, he is full of artifice.  He has given to the well a false bottom, of which perchance none knows but himself.  He knows how to raise it from the well, as I saw him do; but all the world beside would hold it in truth to be the well’s bottom.  Beneath yon slab the treasure lies.  Cuthbert, thou hast found the secret.  Thou wilt be the one to restore the fortunes of our house.”

“Methinks it will be more thou than I, sweet sister,” answered Cuthbert, gladly and proudly, as he leaned over the low stone wall and gazed eagerly into the deep, dark water.  “And right glad am I that we should be together when we find the treasure trove.  Canst see aught in yon deep hole, Petronella?”

She shook her head.

“Nor I neither.  We must wait for daylight for that, and then perchance it will not reveal itself to our eyes.  Yet it is there.  I am certain sure of it; and although it may be something difficult to rescue even now, I doubt not that with patience and time we may succeed.  Petronella, I will tomorrow to the village nighest at hand, whilst thou dost rest up in yon tree out of the way of all harm, where I have prepared a place of comfort.  I will purchase there a suit of boy’s clothes for thee to wear whilst thou dost share my forest life; it will be safer for thee, and more commodious likewise.  I will also buy us victuals and a coil of rope.  Then we twain can set to work over our task, and it will be strange indeed if we be balked in it, seeing that the hardest part is already accomplished.  The secret is ours!”

Petronella’s eyes sparkled beneath their heavy fringes.  There was a spice of adventure and romance about this that could not but be delightful to any young spirit.

“Thou wilt not then tell our kinsfolk at the Chase, and ask their aid in this?”

Cuthbert shook his head.

“I will tell no man aught.  I will ask for nothing till the treasure is in mine own hands!” he cried, with a gesture of triumph and pride.  “They would believe naught when I spoke of the treasure before.  They might even yet laugh us to scorn were we to tell our tale and point to the well as the place.  No:  we have done all alone thus far; let us do all alone even to the end.  Time presses not.  We have the summer before us.  We have possession of this dell, where no foot but that of yon dead man ever dared to tread.  He thus removed from our path, none else will spy upon us nor hinder us.  We are safer here than in any other spot in the forest.

“Say, sister, wilt thou be my helper in this labour, be it small or great?”

She laid her hand trustingly in his; her dark eyes glowed.

“Gladly, gladly will I share the labour and the toil, my brother.  O Cuthbert, it seems a happy and a fitting thing that the luck of the house should return to the Trevlyns of the Chase through the two poor cousins whom they befriended in their hour of need.  They were kind to us when our life was darkest; it will be sweet to think that they will win happiness through us.”