"Your Highness," replied Strange, "I have here a notorious rebel, though young as ye see. But he was carrying a package which Archibald Cameron handed to him on the shores of Arkaig to deliver to the Pretender. I have reasons for believing, your Highness, that it contains not only a plan of where the treasure be hid, but also the place of concealment of the Prince and the movements of the Jacobites still at liberty. We have followed him according to our instructions." The Duke of Cumberland stared at Rob, then leapt to his feet. "Goot, Strange," said he, smacking his lips audibly, "you are a vonder. You vill not be forgotten, my man," and he ripped open the seal and unwrapped the paper. Rob could see that there was more paper than he had thought. But what made his heart bound with sudden hope was the bewildered expression upon the Duke's face. "Is zis a joke, Strange?" he shouted, at last, flinging a sheaf of papers upon the floor. "Those," said he in a white heat of fury, "are accounts of charges for drugs. And zis," he added in a roar of anger, holding a scrap with the tips of his fingers, "has ze impertinence to say 'this is no ze goose that laid ze golden egg.'" In the utter silence Rob laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks. And all the time Cumberland glared at Strange, and the latter stood with an utterly vacant expression, as though he had opened his mouth to say something and then clean forgotten what it was. Suddenly the Duke turned with a scream of fury upon Rob. "To-morrow," he cried, his face livid with passion, "ve vill see 'ow you laugh on the gibbet," and he stormed on Strange to go, turning his back upon them both. But Rob did not move. "On what charge am I condemned?" he asked. The Duke switched round. "Charge!" he cried, and then paused. "Strange, what is the charge?" he asked, stamping his foot. "It was for carrying treasonable matter," replied Strange in a husky voice; "but I suppose..." "There was nothing against the throne in the package," broke in Rob. "Strange," shouted the Duke, "am I to wrangle with a school boy? Is 'e not a rebel?" "He is, your Highness. He was in arms at Culloden." "Zen surely that is enough to 'ang any man." "You have no witnesses," retorted Rob. "Zen find vitnesses. Himmel!--make vitnesses!" broke out the Duke, seating himself again at the table. "But go, Strange, before I burst--and 'old--come back in half an hour. I would talk with you over this and other matters." In his cell Rob could have wept for joy had he been given to that sort of thing. For he realized that though he had been the goose who had drawn off the pursuit from Cameron, the Prince was safe, and that the gold would yet be his. In this elation of feeling he crossed slowly to the window. The last rays of the sun were falling upon the blank bars of the gibbet, at which he felt his heart sink, for it was a cold and melancholy ending to his ambitions and his life. * * * * *