joyfully attended their leader, the adept remained in a brown study by the side of the open grave. "Who was it as could have thought this?" he ejaculated unconsciously. "Mine heiligkeit! I have heard of such things, and often spoken of such things--but, sapperment! I never, thought to see them! And if I had gone but two or dree feet deeper down in the earth--mein himmel! it had been all mine own--so much more as I have been muddling about to get from this fool's man." Here the German ceased his soliloquy, for, raising his eyes, he encountered those of Edie Ochiltree, who had not followed the rest of the company, but, resting as usual on his pike-staff, had planted himself on the other side of the grave. The features of the old man, naturally shrewd and expressive almost to an appearance of knavery, seemed in this instance so keenly knowing, that even the assurance of Dousterswivel, though a professed adventurer, sunk beneath their glances. But he saw the necessity of an e'claircissement, and, rallying his spirits, instantly began to sound the mendicant on the occurrences of the day. "Goot Maister Edies Ochiltrees"-- "Edie Ochiltree, nae maister--your puir bedesman and the king's," answered the Blue-Gown. "Awell den, goot Edie, what do you think of all dis?" "I was just thinking it was very kind (for I darena say very simple) o' your honour to gie thae twa rich gentles, wha hae lands and lairdships, and siller without end, this grand pose o' silver and treasure (three times tried in the fire, as the Scripture expresses it), that might hae made yoursell and ony twa or three honest bodies beside, as happy and content as the day was lang." "Indeed, Edie, mine honest friends, dat is very true; only I did not know, dat is, I was not sure, where to find the gelt myself." "What! was it not by your honours advice and counsel that Monkbarns and the Knight of Knockwinnock came here then?" "Aha--yes; but it was by another circumstance. I did not know dat dey would have found de treasure, mine friend; though I did guess, by such a tintamarre, and cough, and sneeze, and groan, among de spirit one other night here, dat there might be treasure and bullion hereabout. Ach, mein himmel! the spirit will hone and groan over his gelt, as if he were a Dutch Burgomaster counting his dollars after a great dinner at the Stadthaus." "And do you really believe the like o' that, Mr. Dusterdeevil!--a skeelfu' man like you--hout fie!" "Mein friend," answered the adept, foreed by circumstances to speak something nearer the truth than he generally used to do, "I believed it no more than you and no man at all, till I did hear them hone and moan and groan myself on de oder night, and till I did this day see de cause, which was an great chest all full of de pure silver from Mexico--and what would you ave nae think den?" "And what wad ye gie to ony ane," said Edie, "that wad help ye to sic another kistfu' o' silver!" "Give?--mein himmel!--one great big quarter of it." "Now if the secret were mine," said the mendicant, "I wad stand out for a half; for you see, though I am but a puir ragged body, and couldna carry silver or gowd to sell for fear o' being taen up, yet I could find mony folk would pass it awa for me at unco muckle easier profit than ye're thinking on." "Ach, himmel!--Mein goot friend, what was it I said?--I did mean to say you should have de tree quarter for your half, and de one quarter to be my fair half." "No, no, Mr. Dusterdeevil, we will divide equally what we find, like brother and brother. Now, look at this board that I just flung into the dark aisle out o' the way, while Monkbarns was glowering ower a' the silver yonder. He's a sharp chiel Monkbarns--I was glad to keep the like o' this out o' his sight. Ye'll maybe can read the character better than me--I am nae that book learned, at least I'm no that muckle in practice." With this modest declaration of ignorance, Ochiltree brought forth from behind a pillar the cover of the box or chest of treasure, which, when forced from its hinges, had been carelessly flung aside during the ardour of curiosity to ascertain the contents which it concealed, and had been afterwards, as it seems, secreted by the mendicant. There was a word and a number upon the plank, and the beggar made them more distinct by spitting upon his ragged blue handkerchief, and rubbing off the clay by which the inscription was obscured. It was in the ordinary black letter. "Can ye mak ought o't?" said Edie to the adept. "S," said the philosopher, like a child getting his lesson in the primer --"S, T, A, R, C, H,--_Starch!_--dat is what de woman-washers put into de neckerchers, and de shirt collar." "Search!" echoed Ochiltree; "na, na, Mr. Dusterdeevil, ye are mair of a conjuror than a clerk--it's _search,_ man, _search_--See, there's the _Ye_ clear and distinct." "Aha! I see it now--it is _search--number one._ Mein himmel! then there must be a _number two,_ mein goot friend: for _search_ is what you call. . . . . . .