His quiet appeal overcame our repugnance. Once more we grovelled and groped in the bowels of the well. It was a gruesome task; but we fulfilled it. Excitement, no doubt--an eagerness to be done with it, and so earn the sweeter reward of adventure, stimulated us. At the end we had found, and gathered into a heap outside, all evidence that remained to mortality of that ancient deed of murder. It made one’s brain swim to look down on this wonderful tragic salvage of the centuries. It was all true, then--all true! And Destiny had made us her instruments in this unspeakable resurrection! All this time Joshua, and even my uncle, had remained as if tranced. Now, suddenly, the former raised his voice in a shrill ecstatic cry. “Poor Abel! poor fool! Come, let us load up! What are we waiting for?” It was evident he was wrought far beyond any susceptibility to moral warning or rebuke. The rector perceived this, I think, and submitted himself to circumstance. The truck was hurried up, and the chest placed upon it. It needed our united efforts to raise the thing; and at our every stagger Joshua sawed out a little jubilant laugh. We gathered the tools and the ropes and the ruin of the wrench, and piled all on top. Then we disposed the broken skeleton amidst, and started on our way home. It was a hard pull now, though we all gave a hand to it. Three o’clock had struck, when at last, exhausted and agitated, we drew the little cart cautiously up to the study window, and unloaded it of its weightest burden, leaving the rest temporarily outside while we examined our haul. The box had been stoutly fastened and secured; but the wood being shrunk away from its clamps rendered our task an easy one. A little wrenching with forceps, and the whole lid came apart, sinking upon the floor with a dusty clang. And then---- Sleeking and glinting through a dust of perished rags--piled to the throat, and kept burnished by the sand that had filtered in--a glut of gold! Gold in rouleaux and ingots; gold in sovereigns and ryals; gold in angels and rose-nobles--near all of Henry the Seventh’s and Henry the Eighth’s reigns, and of incalculable antiquarian, apart from their intrinsic, value; gold in patens; gold and more in a jewelled ciborium; chased gold and ivory in an exquisite chalice with handles, and little queer figures of saints in rich enamel; gold in such wealth as we had never dreamt. The vessels had been wrapped, it appeared, in soft skins of suckling-calf vellum, which had long crumpled into a floury meal, keeping all bright as blossoms preserved in sand, and easy to dust and blow away, We felt fairly drunk with the sight, as we gazed down spell-bound into that brimming reservoir of all wealth. And then suddenly Mr. Sant had fallen upon his knees. “O Lord!” he prayed, in a low half-agonized tone; “teach thy servant to deal rightly with this, converting it to fair uses, and justifying himself of Thy generosity.”