My two guides were beside me in an instant, and had me on my feet again.
"'All's good,' said Peter, 'but lucky it not happen otherwhere.
Only take care for last chain.

But what bad with him ?' "He might well ask; for there, full in front of my eyes that strained and doubted, glimmered a huge trunk cleft into seven--yes, seven-- branches that met again and disappeared in a mass of black foliage.
It was my father's tree.
"So far then the parchment had not lied.

Here was the tree, 'noticeable and not to be missed,' and barely thirty-two paces from the spot where I was standing lay the key to the treasure which I had travelled this weary distance to seek.

But the time for search had not yet come.

By the clear light of day and alone I must explore the secret.