“I am not superstitious, and you can take it home if you like. I will not touch it; I tell you it is a horrid thing.”
“All right, Doll, then you sha’n’t have a share of the spoil. Miss Ceswick and I will divide it. Will you help me to carry it to the house, Miss Ceswick?—that is, unless you are afraid of it, like Doll.”
“O no,” she answered, “I am not afraid; I am dying of curiosity to see what is inside.”
CHAPTER X.
WHAT EVA FOUND
“You are sure you are not too tired?” said Ernest, after a moment’s consideration.
“No, indeed, I have quite recovered,” she answered, with a blush.
Ernest blushed too, from sympathy probably, and went to pick up a bough that lay beneath a stunted oak-tree which grew in the ruins of the abbey, on the spot where once the altar had stood. This he ran through the iron handle, and, directing Eva to catch hold of one end, he took the other himself, and they started for the house, Dorothy marching solemnly in front.
As it happened, Jeremy and Mr. Cardus were strolling along together smoking, when suddenly they caught sight of the cavalcade advancing, and hurried to meet it.
“What is all this?” asked Mr. Cardus of Dorothy, who was now nearly fifty yards ahead of the other two.
“Well, Reginald, it is a long story. First we found Eva Ceswick slipping down the cliff, and dragged her up just in time.”