CHAPTER X

THE GUARDIAN OF THE SECRET I HAD some tea at the Plough, with fresh butter and cream which, after those weeks on board the _Thrush_, were delicious. Much gratified that I had at last discovered the house of the noble freebooter, I set to work to make inquiries regarding the family of Knutton, the hereditary guardians of the treasure, and of the descendants of Clement Wollerton, who, it appeared, had been Bartholomew’s lieutenant, and whose skeleton I had most probably seen on board the _Seahorse_. The innkeeper’s s…