"If you please, sir, it's Lady Mary's. She's lost it."
"And lost it--Your Majesty--only to find something more precious. Would
Your Majesty hear the story?"
A little alarmed, a little curious, a little self-anxious, and a
little induced by the nudges and pinches of her companions, the Queen
blushingly signified her royal assent.
"Enough. Bring refreshments. Will Your Majesty prefer wintergreen,
peppermint, rose, or acidulated drops? Red or white? Or perhaps Your
Majesty will let me recommend these bull's-eyes," said the leader, as
a collection of sweets in a hat were suddenly produced from the barrel
labeled "Gunpowder" and handed to the children.
"Listen," he continued, in a silence broken only by the gentle sucking
of bull's-eyes. "Many years ago the old Red Rovers of these parts locked
up all their treasures in a secret cavern in this mountain. They used
spells and magic to keep it from being entered or found by anybody, for
there was a certain mark upon it made by a peculiar rock that stuck out
of it, which signified what there was below. Long afterwards, other Red
Rovers who had heard of it came here and spent days and days trying to
discover it, digging holes and blasting tunnels like this, but of no
use! Sometimes they thought they discovered the magic marks in the
peculiar rock that stuck out of it, but when they dug there they found
no treasure.
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