"It is as I have said: Long Robin, and he alone, ever came back to the mill.

He was five days gone, and men said he looked ten years older in those days.

He told a strange tale.

He said that the treasure had been found and secreted, but that the sight of the gold had acted like strong drink upon his seven comrades: that they had vowed to carry it away and convert it into money, that they might be rich for the rest of their days; and that when he had opposed them, bidding them remember the words of the queen, they had set upon him, had bound him hand and foot, and had left him to perish in a cave, whence he had only been released by the charity of a passer by, when he was well-nigh starved with hunger and cold.

He said that he had gone at once to the place where the treasure had been hid, and had found all of it gone.