Timothy rose cautiously to his feet and looked after the bobbing lantern till it vanished from his sight, and then, feeling in his pocket for a fresh bit of candle, put it into his lantern, lit it, and ran to inspect the mysterious spot. First he examined the hedge, and after a minute scrutiny discovered a small cross cut deep into the bark of a stout holly sapling, which was evidently intended to serve as a landmark; next, carefully inspecting the ground in the neighbourhood, he came to the place where the earth had been recently disturbed. The field was a turnip field, and it would have been difficult on the morrow to distinguish the precise locality without some such precaution as the girl had taken; as Timothy knelt down to pursue his investigations he mentally commended her wisdom. Depositing his lantern on the ground he scratched away the loose earth with his vigorous hands, and presently came to a little bundle. This, on being withdrawn and held to the light, proved to be a cheap printed cotton handkerchief which was carefully knotted about something hard and round. Timothy breathlessly removed this outer covering, and discovered to his astonishment a gold watch. A gentleman’s gold watch, as he said to himself, for it was a fairly large size, and there was a monogram on the lid, and two or three seals and charms—fallals Timothy dubbed them—appended to the ring. Timothy sat back on his heels, opening eyes and mouth in astonishment. “Well, I’m dalled!” he ejaculated under his breath. “That there nice, vitty little maid. Who’d ever think she’d be that artful. And that wicked!” he added severely. After turning about the watch, and examining it on every side, he wrapped it up again, and restored it to its hiding-place. “She must ha’ stole it,” he said to himself, as he threw in the earth again. “Certain sure, she must ha’ stole it. A poor maid like her doesn’t ha’ gold watches to throw about. If it was given to her she wouldn’t go and bury it in a field half a mile away from her home. No, ’tisn’t very likely. She stole it. That’s what she’s done, and she’ve a-hid it away here to keep it safe till she can pop it, or maybe sell it. Nobody ’ud ha’ knowed if I hadn’t chanced to look over the hurdle. It do really seem quite providential,” continued Timothy, who loved to use a long word, now and then, even in communion with himself, “to think I should ha’ falled asleep, and my lantern should ha’ went out like that, else the maid ’ud never ha’ dug so nigh to where I was sittin’.” He rose to his feet now, stamping down the earth over the filled-in hole, and then loosening the surface with the toe of his big boot; as he turned away he laughed to himself. “The maid little thinks as I do know her secret. I’ll watch—ah, sure, I’ll watch. I’m not wishful for to get her into trouble, but I’ll watch. When she comes to dig her treasure up again, I’ll ha’ summat for to say to her.”