Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-03-01

ssD0 you know where we Areg WIS
pered Sheppard. This is below the
keep. Shall we 60 INF
Certainly ! said, set Montgom-
cry up" He pulled the lad to his feet,
and slowly we showed back the huge
creaking door.
The chamber into which we We're
now come was small and square and,
like that below, barred by solid mason
Try and unrelieved by window or graf
ing. / found later by calculation that
this must be in the very heart of the
keep itself and so wholly disparted
from the rest of the castle that the
noise of ordnance would scarce have
penetrated its deep and dismal re-
cesses. Ny eyes were drawn as by a
magnet to the farther corner of the
barren cell, in which I could perceive
/ some formidable shadows wavering be-
meath the dull, uncertain light of my
lantern.
Sheppard also had deserted them and,
plunging forward with a cry. flung
himself upon his knees.
They are here right enough" he
called. And at his words Montgom-
cry and approached him. held the
light above his head, throwing the
faint beams across his shoulder. There
were three large oaken cases standing
upon legs and simply carved upon the
face. The dust lay deep on them, as
upon the floor of that interior dungeon.
| Sheppard brushed the dust away and
seized the lock. The hinge fell back to
his touch, and slowly he lifted the
massive lid.
/ The light shone still upon dark shad-
ows, but, STOPPING a little lower, /
thrust it into the mouth of the aper-
/ ture, and our noses hung over the sides
of the box together.
| The treasure was there for certain.
There it lay spread before our greedy
faces, the gold and the silver and the
precious stones that had been destined
to save one king from death and an
other from exile let the pieces slip
| through ray fingers guineas, moidores,
circlets of gold and silver, amuiets
and all the material gems of the mar
| ket.
"How much is therefu asked Mont
gomery.
Sheppard seemed to ponder, measur-
ing rudely with his finger and comput-
ing the superficial area of the boxes.
mo one can say offhand," said he,
for there are the jewels, for one thing,
among which are rubies. Now, rubies
of that size and lie pounced upon one
fare worth little short Of thousand
| pounds"
Montgomery gaped and whistled.
LET us make rough shot and put the
box at 100000. Come; I'll take bet
that it's under the mark
sThen there are the other two" said I.
.True, said Sheppard. We all looked
at one another.
'sCome, boys" said, rising; "let US
get out of this. We know our way,
and the treasure cannot take itself
wings. z
Reluctantly they obeyed, and we re-
traced our steps through the cupboard
into the corridor and thence upward
through the courtyard and into the liv-
ing rooms. The dawn was Frightening
the eastern skies | pulled out my
watch
after 81 l said. You'd better go to
bed There will be nothing happen
now.
sThree o'clockg echoed Sheppard in
dignantly. why, it is the very time
for attacks and surprises. No; I'll see
it out now
every well" / assented. We've got
to arrange our defense, and as you are
all determined not to go to bed we
may as well hold council Of war"
agreed" said they, and we sat down
to the job without further ado. We
were agreed to consider 5 in the morn
ing as the break of day for our pur
poses, and we were hardly exposed to
an assault before s in the evening.
The sky was still luminous at that
hour. 1t was therefore plain that we
must set guard upon those intermedi-
ate and nocturnal hours. From till
was space of nine hours. That was
to determine for us watch of three.
So far we settled the preliminaries of
our defenses. But we had now to con-
slider further. The drum towers COM
manded the slopes of the valley Ike
two tall sentinels, and from the en-
brasure of the windows watch might
be kept upon the neither parts of the
Gwent. But from one SO stationed the
back Of the park and the crown of the
hill behind were quite concealed. In
this connection it appeared that the
keep would best serve us, more partic-
ularly as the upper chambers were
readily gained from the inhabited wing
of the castle, whereas the towers reared
their formidable heads in isolation and
led only to the corridors of the base
ment and to the battlements above. It
was in the keep, then, that our sentinel
must hold his silent watch. The high
est chamber in the keep rose immedi-
ately above the level of the battlements
and was pierced by narrow Sits in the