"Certainly," replied Edward, laughing, "I do not much help his cause by killing his deer, that must be admitted; all I shall say is this, if any thing is offered to me which I can accept without injury to my feelings and my honor, I shall not decline it, provided that I may, by accepting it, prove of service to the king's cause."
"That is all I wish, Edward. And now I think we had better go to bed."
The next day they dug up the iron chest and the box into which Humphrey had put all the papers he had collected together. Edward opened the iron chest, and found in it a considerable quantity of gold in bags, and many trinkets and jewels which he did not know the value of. The papers he did not open, but resolved that they should be given to the intendant, for Edward felt that he could trust in him. The other boxes and trunks were also opened and examined, and many other articles of apparent value discovered.
"I should think all these jewels worth a great deal of money, Humphrey," said Edward; "if so, all the better for poor little Clara. I am sorry to part with her, although we have known her so short a time; she appears to be such an amiable and affectionate child."
"That she is; and certainly the handsomest little girl I ever saw. What beautiful eyes! Do you know that on one of her journeys to Lymington she was very nearly taken by a party of gipsies? and by what Pablo can make out, it would appear that it was by the party to which he belonged."
"I wonder at her father permitting her to go alone such a distance."
"Her father could not do otherwise. Necessity has no law. He could trust no other person, so he put her in boys' clothes that there might be less risk. Still, she must have been very intelligent to have done the office."
"She is thirteen years old, although she is small," replied Edward. "And intelligent she certainly is, as you may see by her countenance. Who would ever have imagined that our sisters would have been able to do what they are doing now? It's an old saying, 'We never know what we can do till we try.' By-the-by Humphrey, I met a famous herd of forest ponies the other day, and I said to myself, 'I wonder whether Humphrey will be clever enough to take one of them, as he has the wild cattle?' For Billy is getting old, and we want a successor."
"We want more than a successor to Billy, Edward: we want two more to help him—and I have the means of maintaining two more ponies if I could catch them."
"I fear that you will never manage that, Humphrey," said Edward, laughing.