With a sigh of relief he held up the lantern and looked round.  He was standing in a good-sized vault or chamber, built of rubble stone.  Some of this rubble had fallen in to his left; but otherwise, though the workmanship showed that it must be of extreme antiquity, the stone lining was still strong and good.  He looked upon the floor, and then for the first time saw that the nodding skeleton before him was not the only one.  All round lay remnants of the dead.  There they were, stretched out in the form of a circle, of which the stone kist was the centre.[*] One place in the circle was vacant; evidently it had once been occupied by the giant frame which now sat within the kist.  Next he looked at the kist itself.  It had all the appearance of one of those rude stone chests in which the very ancient inhabitants of this island buried the ashes of their cremated dead.  But, if this was so, whence came the un-cremated skeletons?

[*] At Bungay, in Suffolk, there stood a mound or tumulus, on which
    was a windmill.  Some years ago the windmill was pulled down, and
    the owner of the ground wishing to build a house upon its site,
    set to work to cart away the mound.  His astonishment may be
    conceived when he found in the earth a great number of skeletons
    arranged in circles.  These skeletons were of large size, and a
    gentleman who saw them informed me that he measured one.  It was
    that of a man who must have been nearly seven feet high.  The bones
    were, unhappily, carted away and thrown into a dyke.  But no house
    has been built upon the resting-place of those unknown warriors. 
    —­Author.

Perhaps a subsequent race or tribe had found the chamber ready prepared, and used it to bury some among them who had fallen in battle.  It was impossible to say more, especially as with one exception there was nothing buried with the skeletons which would assist to identify their race or age.  That exception was a dog.  A dog had been placed by one of the bodies.  Evidently from the position of the bones of its master’s arms he had been left to his last sleep with his hand resting on the hound’s head.

Bending down, Harold examined the seated skeleton more closely.  It was, he discovered, accurately jointed together with strong wire.  Clearly this was the work of hands which were born into the world long after the flesh on those mighty bones had crumbled into dust.

But where was the treasure?  He saw none.  His heart sank as the idea struck him that he had made an interesting archaeological discovery, and that was all.  Before undertaking a closer search he went under the hole and halloaed to George to come down as there was nothing but some bones to frighten him.

This the worthy George was at length with much difficulty persuaded to do.

When at last he stood beside him in the vault, Harold explained to him what the place was and how ridiculous were his fears, without however succeeding in allaying them to any considerable extent.