“You have decided, then, to give Lord St. Austell the third part of a handsome fortune, if indeed we are so fortunate as to find anything at all, which possibly we may not do.” “Well, let’s find it first, and we can talk about Lord St. Austell afterwards. The finders of a big hoard are entitled to something, I suppose?” “Very little. They may claim a trifling percentage, I believe, perhaps 2 per cent. or 3 per cent., on the value of the find as assessed by the Crown. Enough to pay the expenses of the journey to London to claim it. But even then, there are such pleasures in London, such wines, such lovely faces--a week’s visit would be well worth all the trouble.” “Wines! I don’t suppose the finest wine that ever was made would intoxicate me like a gallop over the hills here!” said Rees, doubtfully. “And as for faces, I don’t believe there’s another in England as handsome as Deborah’s!” An ugly flush rose in the elder man’s cheeks at the mention of her name. “Deborah! Why, she’s a negress compared to the London girls. They are the pick of the beauty-basket, as I think you will say. For if you cannot judge a woman’s beauty, who should, when all the pretty lasses in the county are waiting for you to throw them the handkerchief? But they are dumpy, dowdy creatures you will find when you get to London.” “And if we find all this, we shall only get a few pounds? But that is not fair. What right has the Crown to it, that never heard of it? Or Lord St. Austell, who laughed at the idea of its existence?” “That’s what I want to know. The Crown portion will perhaps be paid away in the pensions of those noblemen who are paid handsomely by the State for being the descendants of Charles the Second’s mistresses. Or it may be spent in keeping up Buckingham Palace, where the Sovereign never lives, and where a collection of splendid pictures moulders away in the company of the Royal spiders, the public not being allowed to enter and see them. I don’t know. And Lord St. Austell’s portion? Well, he will be able to enjoy himself in town upon that,” added Amos, with suggestive dryness. “At any rate,” said Rees with excitement, “the thing is first to find it, before we settle what’s to be done with it.” “That is just what I say.” “How shall we begin?” “You must take up a craze, say botany for instance, and start specimen-hunting inside the castle walls. You must have a pickaxe and spade; I will get you those up over the walls--and you must explore systematically, bit by bit. I will be on the watch outside. You will always let me know what part you are at work in, and I will keep watch. I have two hours in the middle of the day, and as many as you like at night.” “All right. We’ll begin to-night.” They parted with only a few more words, for Rees was oppressed by the consciousness that, explain it away as he might, he was about to do an underhand action; and Goodhare, when he had gained a point, was not a man to weaken his effect by superfluous words.