Croyden loaded it, closed the cylinder, and passed it over to Moses, who took it with a little more assurance. He was harkening back thirty years, and more. "What do yo warn me to do, seh?" he asked. "I want you to sit down, here, while I'm away, and if any one tries to get in this house, to-night, you're to shoot him. I'm going over to Captain Carrington's--I'll be back by eleven o'clock. It isn't likely you will be disturbed; if you are, one shot will frighten him off, even if you don't hit him, and I'll hear the shot, and come back at once. You understand?" "Yass, seh!--I'm to shoot anyone what tries to get in." "Not exactly!" laughed Croyden. "You're to shoot anyone who tries to _break_ in. For Heaven's sake! don't shoot me, when I return, or any one else who comes legitimately. Be sure he is an intruder, then bang away." "Sut'n'y, seh! I onderstands. I'se dub'us bout hittin', but I kin bang away right nuf. Does yo' spose any one will try to git in, seh?" "No, I don't!" Croyden smiled--"but you be ready for them, Moses, be ready for them. It's just as well to provide against contingencies." "Yass, seh!" as Croyden went out and the front door closed behind him, "but dem 'tingencies is monty dang'ous t'ings to fools wid. I don' likes hit, dat's whar I don'." Croyden found Miss Carrington just where he had left her--a quick return to the sofa having been synchronous with his appearance in the hall. "I had a mind not to wait here," she said; "you were an inordinately long time, Mr. Croyden." "I was!" he replied, sitting down beside her. "I was, and I admit it--but it can be explained." "I'm listening!" she smiled. "Before you listen to me, listen to Robert Parmenter, deceased!" said he, and gave her the letter. "Oh, this is the letter--do you mean that I am to read it?" "If you please!" he answered. She read it through without a single word of comment--an amazing thing in a woman, who, when her curiosity is aroused, can ask more questions to the minute than can be answered in a month. When she had finished, she turned back and read portions of it again, especially the direction as to finding the treasure, and the postscript bequests by the Duvals. At last, she dropped the letter in her lap and looked up at Croyden. "A most remarkable document!" she said. "Most extraordinary in its ordinariness, and most ordinary in its extraordinariness. And you searched, carefully, for three weeks and found--nothing?" "We did," he replied. "Now, I'll tell you about it." "First, tell me where you obtained this letter?" "I found it by accident--in a secret compartment of an escritoire at Clarendon," he answered. She nodded. "Now you may tell me about it?" she said, and settled back to listen. "This is the tale of Parmenter's treasure--and how we did _not_ find it!" he laughed.