A cry of surprise and anger broke from the other. "Don't ask me!" he said. "You know more about the place than I do, Isaac."
"Someone must have placed that light there, it's certain," was Isaac's reply. "Someone may be watching there now. It may be the old wizard himself."
"How can it be when he's in France or some such place?" returned his companion.
"He may have come back," said Isaac. "You know, Ned, I told you I did not believe he would stay away as long as folks said."
"Well," said the other with an oath, "it will be the worse for him if he has come back before we have discovered where he hides his money."
"Don't talk that way, Ned. I'll have nothing to do with that sort of thing, as I told you at first; though I see no harm in helping ourselves to a little of the gold which the old chap does not know how to use."
"Nonsense, Isaac, I'm not going to kill him," replied the burly man. "I'd only give him a rap on the head that would knock him silly for a bit."
"All the same I'll have nothing to do with it," said Isaac. "I should not wonder if that light's the work of those tiresome young kids I saw in the house this morning. I had barely gone through all the old miser's drawers and cupboards when they arrived, and I heard them run up to the tower. I locked up and was off in a jiffy; but was not clear of the place when they came scampering down. They may have caught a glimpse of me."
"It was like your stupidity to let them," growled the other. "P'raps they gave an alarm and there's someone there waiting for us. We must mind what we are about."
"If he's a wizard, he may have found it out in some uncanny way," suggested Isaac. "He's been known to vanish into the ground when folks were watching him, and to stay in the cave after the sea filled it without being drowned."