leave, travelling homeward in an amicable way.  Then, Doctor Halbert insisted on his vehicle being brought round, as there must be work waiting for him at home; so a box with a cushion was placed for his sprained leg, and he and Miss Fanny were just on the eve of starting, when Mr. Perrowne came running up in great haste, and begged to be allowed to drive the doctor over.  With a little squeezing he got in, and, amid much waving of handkerchiefs, the doctor’s buggy drove away.  Mr. Lamb exhibited no desire to leave, and Miss Carmichael was compelled to devote herself to him, a somewhat monotonous task, in spite of his garrulous egotism.  Timotheus, by the Squire’s orders, harnessed the horses to the waggonette, and deposited therein a pickaxe and a spade.  Mr. Bigglethorpe brought out his fishing tackle, joyous over the prospect of a day’s fishing, and Mr. Terry lugged along a huge basket, prepared by his daughter in the kitchen, with all manner of eatables and drinkables for the picnic.  The lawyer made the fourth of the party, exclusive of Timotheus, who gave instructions to Maguffin how to behave in his absence.  The colonel was with Wilkinson, but the ladies and Mr. Lamb came to see the expedition under way.  It was arranged that Timotheus should drive the Squire and the lawyer to the masked road and leave them there, after which he was to take the others to Richards place, put up the horses, and help them to propel the scow through the lakes and channels.  Accordingly, the treasure seekers got out the pick and shovel, and trudged along to the scene of the late fire.  As they neared the Encampment, their road became a difficult and painful one, over fallen trees blackened with fire, and through beds of sodden ashes.  At the Encampment, the ground, save where the buildings had stood, was comparatively bare.  The lofty and enormously strong brick chimney was still standing in spite of the many explosions, and, here and there, a horse appeared, looking wistfully at the ruins of its former home.  There, the intending diggers stood, gazing mutely for a while on the scene of desolation.

“‘Sandy soil, draining both ways, and undercover,’ is what we want, Coristine,” said the Squire.  The two walked back and forward along the ridge, rejecting rock and depression and timbered land.  They searched the foundations of houses and sheds, found the trap under Rawdon’s own house that led to the now utterly caved-in tunnel, and tried likely spots where once the stables stood, only to find accumulations of rubbish.  A steel square such as carpenters use, was found among the chips in the stone-yard, and of this Coristine made a primitive surveyor’s implement by which he sought to take the level of the ground.  “Bring your eye down here, Mr. Carruthers,” he said.  “I see,” answered the Squire; “but, man, yon’s just a conglomeration o’ muckle stanes.”  The lawyer replied, “That’s true, Squire, but it’s the height of land, and that top stone lies almost too squarely to be natural.