It was late ere he left their lodgings, and the family at the bridge house had retired to rest.  He found his way to his room; but little sleep visited his eyes that night, and the fitful dreams which came to him betwixt waking and sleeping seemed charged with ominous warnings.

Sir Richard Trevlyn heard his son’s story in great surprise, but he hesitated not a moment as to the course of action they must pursue.

“I would it had been brought to Trevlyn Chase.  We have a household of men there, and could well defy these rogues of the road.  But Cross Way House has no such defences, and it is tenanted mainly by helpless women, and we must lose no time in going to their assistance.  I have heard long since of this man—­Tyrrel.  He is a notable outlaw, and there is a price upon his head.  The forest will be well freed of him if we can overthrow him.  He has owed his safety again and again to his reckless riding and the alliance and good fellowship he has with the forest gipsies.  It is time the whole brood were smoked out from their hiding places.  They want destroying, root and branch!”

Sir Richard found it easier to remember that the treasure had been stolen and hidden by the gipsy people than that it had been restored partly through the assistance of the woman Joanna, the queen.  However, there was little time for further talk.  The night was already advanced, and on the morrow they were to make as early a start as was practicable.

Sir Richard had not many servants of his own, but Culverhouse could bring a good dozen men with him.  Unluckily the storm raged all through the earlier hours of the following day, and it was not till noon that a start could be made.  However, the seventeen miles’ ride could be easily made before dark, although the roads were deep in mud, and travelling in the open country was both tedious and bad.

The last of the scattered hamlets had been passed.  The sun glowed red before them in an angry, lowering sky.  Sir Richard and his son and Lord Culverhouse paused on the brow of the ridge to look both before and behind.  They had in their impatience outridden their servants, who, less well mounted, found some difficulty in spurring along the deep mire of the ill-made roads.  They could but just see them on the horizon of the last ridge, coming onwards at an even jog trot, which seemed the swiftest pace they aspired to.

Before lay the long waste of forest—­trees and heather intermixed in long stretches alternating one with the other.  A good seven miles lay between them and their destination, and the sun was already nearing the horizon, and would soon dip behind it.

“We must push on something faster,” said Culverhouse impatiently, “if we are to reach Cross Way House before dark.”

“We have already far outridden our men,” said Sir Richard, frowning slightly as he turned his head to look over his shoulder; “and this is the worst part of the road before us.”