He was in the act of rising with much dignity when Rees drew him pettishly down again.
“Sit down; it’s all right,” said he. “Only you needn’t bring more risk upon us by coming in to play the spy.”
“Indeed, I think you might know me better than to suppose that was my intention. I——”
“All right,” said Rees, cutting him short. “There, that’s all I’ve found and the body of a dead man.”
“A dead man!” cried Amos, who had clutched the old coin which Rees threw to him with greedy eagerness. “A dead man! Why, that must be Lord Hugh, and it’s all true! This,” he went on, turning over the gold piece in his lean fingers, “is a louis d’or. And there must be more—more!”
“That’s all I found, at any rate,” said Rees shortly.
“And you were content to come away with that, without hunting, searching, finding the great treasure which we may now be sure he had on him!” hissed out Goodhare, his mildness giving place to such burning fierceness of look and manner that it crossed the minds of both young men that he looked like a savage animal ready to spring upon Rees and tear his heart out.
“I was content to come away before I was suffocated, certainly,” said Rees very quietly. “I would sooner die a few years later a beggar on the top of the earth than die now in the bowels of it with my hands full of gold. Besides, I didn’t find any gold, except just that one piece. Probably they had drafts on bankers in those days just as they have now, and the fortune may turn out to be just a bit of faded and worthless paper.”
This suggestion startled them all for a moment. Then, however, Goodhare shook his head.
“It is not probable,” he said. “The money was brought from the one country to the other, and I should doubt whether the credit of the King of France was good enough in England for his draft for a large sum to be honored by any banker, even if the times had been more settled. No, depend upon it, if there was treasure sent it was in specie.”