fill at the motionless figure, he softly crept away once more.

He lay hidden in the bushes till he heard Long Robin leave the dell
and go crashing through the underwood with heavy steps, cursing as
he went the two women who stood between him and his desire. It was
plain from his muttered words that he was going back to the camp
now. Plainly he had paid his visit to the hoard and found all safe
and undisturbed. Cuthbert was more and more convinced that the
treasure lay here, as Esther had always believed; and it would be
strange indeed, being so near, if he could not find it in time.

But he would not search tonight; he had the whole summer before
him. Plainly Long Robin was not going to take any immediate step
for the removal of the treasure; and during the last hours a great
longing had come upon Cuthbert to see Petronella again. He was
within ten miles of his old home now, and the thoughts of his
sister had been mingling with these other thoughts of the lost
treasure. Surely he could find his way to the Gate House from this
lonely dell, and once there, by making a signal at his sister's
window, he could advise her of his presence and gain a stolen
interview.

So taking his bearings from the moon, he struck boldly across the
lonely waste of forest that lay between him and his former home,
and soon found himself tramping over the ling and moss of the high
ridge of common land with which the woody tracts of the forest were
frequently interspersed.

As he thus tramped the words of the verses began singing in his
head: "Three times three--o'er ling and moss." What was that three