The cousins parted on excellent terms, and Cuthbert turned, with a strange smile on his brave young face, for a last look at the old Gate House, the gray masonry of which gleamed out between the dark masses of the leafless trees, a single light flickering faintly in an upper casement.

“Petronella’s light!” murmured Cuthbert to himself.  “I trow well she is thinking of me and praying for me before the little shrine in the turret.  May the Holy Saints and Blessed Virgin watch over and protect her!  I trust the day may come ere long when I may have power to rescue her from that evil home, and give to her a dower that shall make her not unworthy of being Philip’s wife.”

By which it may be seen that Cuthbert’s thoughts were still running on the lost treasure, and that he had by no means relinquished his dream of discovery through hearing how others had sought and failed.

“If I may but win a little gold in these winter days when the forest is too inhospitable to be scoured and searched, I can give the whole of the summer to the quest.  I will find these gipsies or their descendants and live amongst them as one of them.  I will learn their ways, win their trust, and gradually discover all that they themselves know.  Who dare say that I may not yet be the one to bring back the lost luck to the house of Trevlyn?  Has it always been the prosperous and rich that have won the greatest prize?  A humble youth such as I may do far more in the wild forest than those who have been bred to ease and luxury, and have to keep state and dignity.”

Thus musing, Cuthbert rode slowly along in the light of the rising moon, his thoughts less occupied with the things he was leaving behind than with thoughts of the future and what it was to bring forth.  The lad had all the pride of his house latent within him, and it delighted him to picture the day when he might return all Sir Richard’s benefits a thousandfold by coming to him with the news of the lost treasure, and bidding him take the elder brother’s share before ever his own father even knew that it had been found at last.  His heart beat high as he pictured that day, and thought how he should watch the light coming into Kate’s bright eyes, as the obstacle to her nuptials should be thus removed.  Sure she could coax her father to remove his veto and overlook the cousinship if she had dower to satisfy Lord Andover.  And if the Trevlyn treasure were but half what men believed, there would be ample to dower all three daughters and fill the family coffers, too.

“In truth it is a thing well worth living for!” cried the eager lad, as he pushed his way out of the wood and upon the highroad, where for a time travelling was somewhat better.  “And why should I not succeed even though others have failed?  My proud kinsmen have never lived in the forest themselves, learning its every secret winding track, making friends of its wild sons and daughters, learning the strange