THE SKULL.
During the recital of this tragical narrative, Abraham, who had listened
to every word with intense interest, became strangely agitated. Several
times it was apparently with the utmost difficulty he could refrain from
relieving himself of something that produced an unusual effect upon his
mind. Especially when it came to the death of the unfortunate Scotchman,
I thought I noticed that he was intensely excited. At first, knowing the
tenderness of his feelings, I attributed this extraordinary
manifestation of interest to grief and pity for the unhappy fate of the
beautiful Chilian; but I soon found that it proceeded from another and
very different cause. No sooner had Pearce concluded than he exclaimed,
"I'll wager a thousand dollars, gentlemen, that the Scotchman never was
buried!"
"He was buried, certain," said Pearce; "I can show you the place."
"Then there is some strange mystery about it," said Abraham, somewhat
disappointed. "This very day I found a man's skull, which I am now quite
certain has some connection with this tragedy."
The intense excitement produced by this disclosure is quite
indescribable. Every body in the party leaned forward, with starting
eyes, and gazed with breathless interest at Abraham. He had purposely
withheld making any reference to the affair of the skull till a fitting
opportunity should occur to disclose all the particulars, when the mind
of every individual present was in a proper tone of solemnity to receive
so important a communication. That opportunity had how occurred, under
the most favorable and unlooked-for circumstances. I never saw Abraham
so excited in my life before--not even on the occasion of his late
unpleasant difficulty.
"Gentlemen," said he, "I had a presentiment before we left the ship that
this expedition would result in some extraordinary discovery. You may
judge from the facts which I am about to disclose to you how far this
presentiment has been verified."
He then, in a voice of becoming solemnity, went into a detailed
narrative of our adventures in the mountains. He commenced at the very
starting-point, where we separated from the hunting party; he dwelt
vividly on our perilous adventure on the cliff, stating all the
particulars of our escape; how we climbed up a perpendicular wall of
rocks four thousand feet high; how we stood upon the very highest
pinnacle, which was only ten inches in diameter; how, when we came down
again to the base, we lay perfectly insensible for an entire hour; and
the wonderful adventures we had in the interior--the walk of six miles
directly back from the ocean; our preservation from a horrible and
lingering death by thirst, through the agency of a little bird; the
Enchanted Valley that we explored, and the two wild horses we caught
entangled in the bushes, and afterward rode; our discovery of an old
castle built in the sixteenth century by Juan Fernando; the mysterious
marks upon the outer wall; our strange and startling explorations of the
interior vaults and marble halls; and finally the discovery of the
skull--the skull of some unfortunate man who had crept into one of those
dreary vaults, where he died on a miserable bed of straw, all alone,
without a soul near him! Afterward how he (Abraham) and myself were
overtaken by a frightful tornado, and cast down over the rocks a
distance of three miles in a direct line; how, during this terrible
fall, he had the misfortune to strike a rock, and ruin the invaluable
relic of mortality which he had put in his pocket, by breaking it all to
pieces; but--
"Did you save the pieces?" asked a voice from the corner. Of course it
was the voice of the Doubter. A look from Abraham silenced him, and the
narrative was resumed:
But it fortunately happened that a portion of the socket of one eye and
a piece of the forehead remained entire, which, together with all the
smaller fragments, he would be most happy to exhibit to the company;
premising, however, that there was but little question in his mind, from
all the particulars of Pearce's tragical narrative, that this skull was
in some way or other connected with it. Possibly it might be that the
unhappy young woman, who it appears was the victim of an inordinate
passion for the murdered man, bereft of her senses by his tragical
death, went to his grave at night and dug up his body, and being unable
to carry it away at once, perhaps she cut it to pieces, and carried it
by degrees up to her secret place of wailing in the mountains, where
she could mourn over his remains without fear of discovery. It was not
an unreasonable conjecture, he thought, considering the woman was
insane. In some hour of despondency she had probably made those
mysterious designs which had led to the discovery--the sketch of the
dead body of her lover; the ship that left the island without saving
him; some pet goat that doubtless accompanied her in her wanderings; the
children that were strangled, and all those vague marks, which indicated
the character of her thoughts.
During the narration of these adventures, which I must confess
astonished me not a little, well as I knew the enthusiastic character of
my friend (and he never was more in earnest in his life), I observed
that Pearce had doubled himself up almost into a knot, covering his face
with his hands, and heaving convulsively, as if moved by some internal
earthquake. There was no sound escaped him, but it was quite evident
that he was strangely affected by Abraham's narrative. The rest of the
party were so deeply interested in the whole disclosure that they took
no notice of him. Could it be that Pearce himself was implicated in the
murder? That it was all a fiction his being in Valparaiso at the time?
That he was in any way attached to this unfortunate female, whose sad
fate had aroused all our sympathies?
"I'd like to see that skull," said the Doubter.
"Here it is--or what remains of it," said Abraham, drawing forth the
pieces from his pocket; "you can all see it if you wish."
The pieces were handed round and examined with intense interest and
curiosity.
"You call this a man's skull?" said the Doubter, looking incredulously
at a piece which he held in his hand.
"I do, sir," said Abraham, sharply; "have you any objection to my
calling it a man's skull, sir?"
"No, none at all; you may call it a dog's skull if you like. _I'd_ call
it Robinson Crusoe's skull if I owned it. For all I know to the
contrary, it _is_ his; but I'd like to have a certificate from himself
to that effect before I'd place much confidence in my own opinion, if I
thought so."
The biting satire of these remarks touched Abraham to the quick. Nothing
in the world would have prevented him from springing upon the Doubter at
that moment, and taking summary vengeance upon his person, but the
sudden exit of Pearce, who, rising from his goatskin, hurriedly left the
cabin. This produced a general murmur of disapprobation. It was the
unanimous opinion that a course of conduct, resulting as this
did--compelling a man, as it were, to leave his own castle for personal
security, was very unbecoming; and that Abraham, being the chief,
although perhaps unintentional cause of it, was in honor bound to go
after him and bring him back.
I take pride in saying that my friend was not the kind of man to resist
such an appeal as this. He immediately left the hut and went in search
of Pearce. Meanwhile we took occasion to administer a well-merited
rebuke to the Doubter; and to declare that if he again interrupted the
harmony of the evening, we would leave him ashore when we started for
the ship. His only reply to this was, that he hoped, if he should
unfortunately die in a cave in consequence of our cruelty, that his head
would make a better-looking skull than the one Abraham had found.
In about ten minutes Abraham and Pearce returned, both having a very
strange expression upon their features. Pearce looked unnaturally
serious about the mouth, but I fancied more knowing than usual about the
eyes. In sitting down he dropped a dollar, which he hastily picked up
and put in his pocket. As to my friend, I thought there was something
confused and dejected in his look; but he immediately said with assumed
spirits when he came in, "All right, gentlemen; all right. The whole
thing is settled; let there be nothing more about it."
Some few questions, however, were asked concerning the skull, but all
the satisfaction Abraham could give was, "You have the particulars,
gentlemen; you must judge for yourselves." Pearce professed to know
nothing about it.
Harmony and good-humor being again restored, there were numerous calls
for some farther reminiscences of the island.
Pearce said he didn't know whether any of us had ever heard of the
governor's vision; if we hadn't, maybe we'd like to hear something about
it. He couldn't promise that it was all true, but the Chilians here
believed every word of it; "and, likely enough," he added, looking
quietly at Abraham, "there may be some of you that can account for it."
"Let us have it!" exclaimed every body in a breath; "the governor's
vision, by all means."
Pearce then fixed himself comfortably on his goatskin, and, putting some
fagots on the fire, gave us in substance the following history of
THE GOVERNOR'S VISION.