HOW THE PLOT WAS DISCOVERED BY XIT, AND DISCLOSED
BY HIM TO MAGOG.

Meantime, Magog, with whom Lovel had parted at the entrance of Saint Thomas’s Tower, had gone in, and made his way through the side-passage, previously described, to the interior of Traitors’ Gate. He found the chests lying upon the platform, just as they had been laid there by himself and his brothers, and sitting down upon one of them, presently fell asleep, and made the vaulted roof resound with his deep breathing. How long he remained in this state he could not say, but he was roused by feeling something crawling, as he thought, over his face, and supposing it to be a gigantic water-rat—the place being infested with such vermin—he put out his hand, and catching hold of the noxious creature, as he deemed it, was about to throw it into the water, when a shrill cry admonished him that the fancied water-rat was no other than Xit.

“Wouldst drown me, Magog?” shrieked the dwarf, clinging to him.

“Drown thee—not I!” replied the giant, laughing. “But I took thee for a rat or an otter.”

“None but a sleepy dolt like thyself would have made such a mistake,” said Xit. “I could not waken thee without plucking thy beard. Call’st thou this keeping guard over the treasure? I call it gross negligence.”

386“Well, well, I am vigilant enough now,” rejoined Magog. “What hast thou to say to me?”

“Something that will keep thee wakeful, I trust,” said Xit. “Lend me thine ears, and I will disclose it to thee. I have discovered a plot.”

“Poh! thou art always making some silly discovery that leads to nothing,” rejoined Magog.

“But this will lead more than one man to the scaffold,” pursued Xit, mysteriously. “’Tis an important discovery I have made.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Magog, with some curiosity. “What is it? Let me hear and judge.”

“It relates to the chests on which thou art sitting,” replied Xit. “There is a plot to carry them off. Master Lovel, the keeper of the treasure, is concerned in it, but the principal contrivers are Osbert Clinton, Sir Henry Dudley, Sir Anthony Kingston, Udal, and the others connected with the late outbreak.”

“Ah, this is indeed important!” cried Magog. “And how didst thou make this discovery?”

“You shall hear,” replied Xit. “Suspecting all was not right, I followed Lovel to his lodging, and by listening at the keyhole, managed to overhear a conversation between him and Osbert Clinton, who is at present concealed in the Jewel House. From this I learnt that the treasure is to be carried off by the traitors, in order to assist them in getting up another insurrection of a far more formidable character than the last. Their plan is to bring a boat to Traitors’ Gate at nine o’clock to-night, when, feigning to be officers sent by the King to remove the treasure to the Exchequer, they will present a warrant, and Master Lovel, being their accomplice, the coffers will be delivered to them—so at least they calculate.”

“A well-devised plan, I must own,” observed Magog, “and like enough to have succeeded.”

“It would infallibly have succeeded but for my shrewdness in detecting it,” said Xit.

“Well, thou wilt, doubtless, receive due credit for thy penetration from Sir Henry Bedingfeld, to whom the matter must be forthwith communicated,” observed Magog, getting up.

387“What art thou about to do, thou foolish giant?” cried Xit. “We can manage this affair without Sir Henry Bedingfeld’s assistance. Recollect that a heavy price is set upon the heads of all these offenders, and if we can effect their arrest—as we shall do if my counsels be followed—the reward will be ours. We must take them all, like fish in a net. Not one must be allowed to escape. Listen to me, and I will show thee how it can be done. The moment the barge is a............