"HUGH."
Beneath this Lord Chesby had scrawled:
"The missing portion is not essential. Below the stone is the treasure. That seems certain."
We looked at one another, hardly able to believe our senses. The thing had appeared so difficult, so unattainable. And now it was almost within our grasp—or so we reasoned in the first flush of confident anticipation.
"It's a question, of course, whether any portion of the Palace of the Bucoleon remains," Nikka pointed out.
"But Uncle James seemed to have no doubt of that," answered Hugh. "Do you remember, Jack?"
A wild shout bellowed from the mouth of the passage, roared and clanged like a trumpet-blast and was shattered by the echoes.
"Your lud'—Mis' Jack! Mis' Nikka!"