The next things they unrolled were five bars of gold, or rather lumps of gold, since instead of being of the shape and form bars are now, they were in cubes, though one was triangular. "A quarter of a pound weight each, Barbara," the young man said, balancing them on his hand. "A quarter of a pound each, if an ounce. I wonder the Respected One could refrain from carrying all this wealth off to his own particular Barbara, or that old Nicholas didn't try to get it away in the Galliot." Barbara only smiled--indeed, at this moment, woman as she was, she was trying the effect of the front part of the coronet as a bracelet on her arm, and was turning her wrist about to observe the flashing of the stones--and then Reginald proceeded with his inspection. "Hullo! what have we got now?" he exclaimed, as he unfolded the next object that came to hand. What he had got now proved to be a sword-handle, cross-shaped and broken off sharp about an inch below the silver guard-plate. In this handle, which itself was massive silver, roughly fretted so that a firm grasp might be obtained, were more precious stones, mostly diamonds, but with one or two missing from their sockets or settings. "Undoubtedly swells," murmured Reginald again, "or else freebooters. Fancy, Barbara, if, after all, the original depositor of these things was a sea-robber or pirate himself! One would imagine he could hardly have got such a collection of things otherwise. Unless, on the other hand, he had been a pawnbroker, called, I believe, in those days a Lombard merchant. What do you think?" "I am getting tired of finding these things," the girl said, listlessly. "I hope there are not many more." "We'll soon see." They had, however, nearly finished their work by now; the remainder of the chest's contents were soon examined. They found, to conclude, a little bag of unset gems--a handful of rubies and diamonds; they found also a gold musk ball, and a little silver casket full of musk, the aroma of which had long since departed, and they also discovered a small iron-bound box full of gold dust. Some drinking cups, very small ones, they likewise found, and some pieces of ivory sawn into slabs, several extremely curious and very unwieldy rings with precious stones in them, a pouncet box in gold, and various pieces of antique lace, black with age. And this concluded their find "Altogether," said Reginald, "I'll bet that Nicholas was not far wrong in his computation of the value of the things in his own day, and, I expect, even in these times, the contents of the oblong box and the chests won't fall far short of his 'fiftie thousand guineas.' But one thing we ought to keep for luck, Barbara, and never part with--and that's the skull, or 'Death,' as Nick called it. It kept its watch and ward well through all the years." * * * * * *