And when we looked, all the floor of the house was broken up, and
the stone paving was piled in corners, and a pick or two lay on
them with a spade and crowbar.

"They have been digging for treasure," said Relf, "and that has
kept them from my house. There are always tales of gold hidden in
these old places. I have seen that they have done the like
elsewhere in the village."

"Aye," said Spray, "they have heard some of our tales, and they
have dug where we would not, for it spoils a house, and the wife's
temper also, to meddle with the good stone floor."

Now it seemed to me that here was a likelihood that there was truth
in the old tales, and that I had lit on the lost hiding place of
which some memory yet remained even from the days when OElla's men
took the town from the iron workers five hundred years and more
ago, when the might of Rome had passed.

"There is somewhat that I have found in this place," I said. "Come
and see what it is."

Wondering, Olaf and Wulfnoth climbed down the ladder after me, and
Relf did but stay to find a torch before he followed us. Then I
showed them the stone and the hollow behind it, and the earl called
for the crowbar that was left by the outlaws, and with a stroke or
two easily broke out the rest of the stone, and the glare of the
torch shone into the place that it had so long sealed.