THE GOLD OF. FAIRNILEE. 309

 

image in her hand, and set his finger on his
lips to show that she must not speak.

Then he went back to the great stone coffin,
and began to grope init with hishands. There
was much earth in it that had slowly sifted
through during the many years that it, had been
buried. But there was also a great round bowl
of metal and a square box.

Randal got out the bowl first. It was covered
with a green rust, and had a lid; in short, it
was a large ancient kettle, such as soldiers use
incamp. Randal got the lid off, and, behold,
it was all full of very ancient
gold coins, not Greek, nor
Roman, but like , this,suchas were
used in Briton { before Julius
Ceesar came.

The square Cs box was of iron,
and was rusted red. On the lid,
in the moonshine, Jeanie could read the letters
S. P.Q. R., but she did not know what they
meant. The box had been locked, and chained,
and clamped with iron bars. But all was so
rusty that the bars were easily broken, and the
lid torn off.

Then the moon shone on bars of gold, and
on great plates and dishes of gold and silver,
marked with letters, and with what Randal
thought were crests. Many of the cups were
studded with red and green and blue stones.
And there were beautiful plates and dishes,