The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn: A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot by - (red queen ebook txt) 📗

I only thought of how to save thee, Cuthbert. O brother, brother, what shall I do? Will they hang me for it?"

"Never," cried Cuthbert, throwing his strong arm about her and smiling at her words. "Sweet Petronella, thou hast naught to fear. This man has long been an outlaw and a robber. He has many lives to answer for himself, as well as innumerable acts of violence with robbery. Even were it not so, thou couldest not be held in any wise guilty by law either of God or man. May Heaven forgive me if I sin, but I am right glad thy bullet did its work so well. Our enemy thus removed from our path, the secret of the lost treasure lies with thee and me. Petronella, I doubt it not for a moment now, that treasure lies at the bottom of the pixies' well. My only wonder is that none have thought of this before."

Petronella pointed to the circular slab lying wet and sparkling in the moonlight upon the sward beside the well.

"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."

"Ay, and Philip's bride will be no longer a portionless damsel, but will have gold enough and to spare. Sweet sister, Philip hath spoken to me openly of his love. He hath been ere this to ask thee at thy father's hand."

"Ay, and was driven forth with blows and curses."

"Thou hast heard it? But thinkest thou he will take that for an answer? Nay, Petronella, thou wilt one day be his bride; and I will give thee to him with a joyful heart, for he loved thee in the days of our poverty and distress; so that one knows his love is for thee and thee alone, not for the fair dowry thou wilt presently bring."

Petronella hid her happy, blushing face on her brother's shoulder, and thus they stood awhile, till the girl drew back with a light shiver and said:

"Cuthbert, can it be right for us thus to stand thinking of our own happiness, whilst he lies there so still and cold?"

"I was just about to bid thee give me leave to bury him, whilst thou dost rest thyself awhile. We will not grudge him that last service; and it will be safer and better to do it here than to give notice of his death to the gipsies and outlaws, and so bring them down upon us in this place, provoking perchance their vengeance upon ourselves. I have here a spade, brought to dig after the treasure. I little thought it would first be used to dig Long Robin's grave. But the task had better be done, and that quickly. The man is dead as a stone. We will bury him away out of our sight ere we do aught beside."

Petronella assented with a slight shudder. She could not regret the death of the giant gipsy, who himself made so light of human life, and would have slain her brother before her eyes without a qualm. But she shivered each time she looked at the motionless form, and was glad when, after some hours of hard work beneath the trees, Cuthbert succeeded in dragging the corpse away and in covering it up from sight. Kneeling beside the rude grave, the girl breathed a prayer for the soul of the departed man, and repeated many an ave and paternoster, in the hope of smoothing for him his passage into eternity (being still considerably imbued with the teachings of her early life, which the newer and clearer faith had by no means eradicated), and then she rose comforted and relieved, feeling as though a dark weight had passed from her spirit.

Daylight had now come, and the girl was very weary. She looked so wan and white that Cuthbert was alarmed, and fed her tenderly with the best his wallet could supply; after which he took her up to his nest in the sycamore, first bringing the rug that was lying in the hollow tree to wrap around her. There he succeeded in making her so comfortable and secure that she fell asleep almost at once, and he was hopeful she would sleep the whole time of his absence, for she was worn out with fatigue, and only just recovering from an illness. How she had borne the fatigues of that night he scarce knew; but she possessed her share of the Trevlyn tenacity of purpose, and her strong will had conquered the feebleness of her frame.

It was a satisfaction to see her sink into a tranquil sleep, and secure in the certainty that she could not be seen by any person entering the dell. Certain that none but a chance traveller ever did come nigh this haunted spot, he was not afraid to leave her; and after studying the simple contrivance by which the round slab was raised and lowered in the well, he dropped it to its former position, and went on his way to the village with a light heart.

The secret of the lost treasure, he was fully certain, was now his; and though the work of rescue might require time and patience and labour, he was convinced it could be accomplished, and that he, with the help of his sister, should find himself competent for the task.

It was evening before he returned, but he found Petronella where he had left her. She had slept almost unbrokenly throughout the day, and was now greatly refreshed and invigorated. The air of the forest and the sweet breath of the pines were enough, as she said, to give her new life; and she descended eagerly to meet and greet her brother, and to examine the purchases he had made.

The first excitement was the ass who bore the heavy load. Cuthbert had had some trouble in making a way for the creature to pass down into the dell; but once here, he would never stray away of his own accord. Indeed, he appeared to have no disposition that way, for he began at once to crop the emerald sward around the well with an air of great contentment, whilst Cuthbert unloaded him and displayed his purchases to his sister.

"There is thy suit, young Peter," he said with a smile. "I trow thou wilt make a pretty boy, and wilt find thyself more fitted for our new life thus habited, and canst rove in the forest thus clad, an thou hast a mind that way, more safely than thou couldest in a maid's dress. And here is wine to put some colour into thy pale cheeks, and food to last us many a day, and blankets to wrap about us by night when the wind blows chill, and this heavy cloak to keep the rain from thee when the skies weep. And see, here is a rope which I trow will let me to the very bottom of the well, an we can once turn the water some other way; and the ass can drag me forth again--and the treasure likewise--when once this matter has been accomplished. The hot, dry weather is coming apace. Men say already that the springs be something low. All this favours our plans; and if I can find the spring that feeds this well, as like enough I may, then will I make shift to turn its waters another way, and the pixies' well shall be dry!"

Petronella gazed at him in surprise.

"Brother, whence comes all this knowledge to thee? I should never have dreamed such a thing might be!"

"But I have read of such things being done ere now," answered Cuthbert eagerly. "I have spent many an hour at Master Cole's shop upon the bridge reading of such matters--how men mine and counter-mine, and dig and delve, and sink wells and drain them, and do many strange things of which we never dreamed in past days. In times of war it is wondrous how many shifts of that or like kind they think of and perform. I little thought how soon I myself should want some such thing accomplished; but I read all eagerly, and Master Anthony Cole explained much that perplexed me; and I trow I might e'en do some such thing myself, with thee and this patient beast to help me in my toil!"

It was with undisguised admiration that Petronella regarded her brother, and very happy and merry was the meal taken together beside the well under the green-wood trees. It was hard to realize that this smiling girl, with the faint pink bloom in her cheek, and the bright eager eyes, was the cowed and sorrowful Petronella of a few days back. Cuthbert looked at her with glad pride as she talked to him and petted the docile ass, who came and stood beside them and got a full share of such things as were pleasant to his palate. Petronella had never had the care of a live thing before, and was delighted with the affection shown towards her at once by the gentle creature.

Her sleep that night in the tree was sound and refreshing; and when she joined Cuthbert, dressed in her suit of boys' garments; laughing, blushing, and delighted with the freedom of motion that they gave her; he found it hard to believe it was really Petronella, and vowed it would not be hard to call her Peter, for that there was little enough of the Petronella of old days to be found in her.

And from that day forward a happy life began for the