In a few more seconds Cuthbert, peering down from his leafy canopy, saw the tall form thrusting itself through the underwood; and Robin, with a loud laugh, threw himself upon the low wall of the pixies' well.
He was talking and muttering to himself, but Cuthbert could not catch the words.

He seemed in a merry mood, for he laughed aloud once or twice, and drank of the well and laughed again.

Once Cuthbert thought he caught the words "treasure" and "safe," but of that he could not be certain; and it was not easy to see how Robin could know this, seeing he had not stirred three paces from the well.
And then a sudden flash came into Cuthbert's soul like one of inspiration.

Suppose the treasure was in the well itself?
What more likely?
Would not that be the safest place of all?
For the precious metals would not hurt through contact with the water; and had he not heard that the waters of this well possessed peculiar properties for preserving anything thrown into them?
Cuthbert's heart beat so fast that he almost feared Robin would hear his deep breathing; but the man was looking down into the well, laughing to himself in the peculiarly malevolent fashion that Cuthbert had heard before.

He never moved from the side of the well for the long hour he remained; and Cuthbert, waiting in feverish impatience till he should be gone, felt as though he had never known an hour so long.
But it ended at last.