He wuz afeard, an' so wuz I. We hadn't even our old flint-locks with us.
They would a'boostered up our courage consid'rable. I wuz right, though,
'bout stayin' where we wuz. We shouldn't a hed time to get halfway to
our boat, 'fore they come up out o' the hole, an' begun to shovel the
sand in agin. I couldn't mek out but four shov'lin', but I never thought
much on it at fust. When the hole, though, got purty nigh full--you
could sort o' tell by the banks--I couldn't then mek out but four men. I
strained an' looked till there wuz dark spots a-swimmin' 'fore my eyes,
and then I whispered to John--for we wuz to the wind'ard on the
men--sayin', "John, how many do you mek out a-shov'lin'?"
"Four," says he, "only four, an' I been countin' 'em agin an' agin."
"That's all I kin mek out uther. Didn't five on 'em come ashore?"
"I know thar wuz five," says John; "I see them five jist ez plain ez I
see them ere four now. I counted five on 'em in two dif'runt places."
The hole wuz filled, they spatted on the sand with their shovels--that
ere made me all the time think o' buryin' somebody--an' then them four
sailors went back to the yawl.
[Illustration: (uncaptioned)]
John an' me waited and watched another long, tejus time--I suppose they
wuz a-waitin fur the best chance to git their yawl through the surf.
It's easier to come on, you know, than it is to git back agin.
Through that ere gap 'tween the hills, though, we see the yawl ez they
rowed off to the ship, and we breathed consid'rable easier. Anchor wuz
huv up, the sails unclewed, an' the ship tacked off to suth'ard.
The days is long that time o' year, an' it wuz well onto sundown afore
the ship got under way. When we see she wuz headin' off, we made fur our
skiff.
We gin up all idee o' hossfootin' that night. It wuz too bad to leave
the Beach, but we hed no mind to stay thar. We wuz mighty afeard, you
see, an' thar's no use o' denyin' it--the thoughts o' what become o'
that fifth man wuz boogerish; so we put for hum.
It would 'a been one o' the very best nights for hossfootin'. The tide
wuz high, an' the moon come up over the Beach big an' full; but the
Beach lay all dusky an' dark under the moon, an' the night seemed owly.
We laid our course straight across. It wurn't pleasant sailin', though,
ez it hed been in the mornin'; fur the waves kep' mekin' moanin' noises
an' guggling's all 'round the boat. I wuz chilly, an' my feelin's
crawled over me, and kep' crawlin' over me till we got to the landin'.
The folks wuz su'prised to see us. We got hum 'bout bed-time, an' told
at once what we'd seen; an' instid o' gittin' off to bed 'arly, ez we
al'ays did Sunday nights to git a good start Monday mornin'--instid o'
gittin' off to bed, we all sot up an' talked a long spell about it.
When I went to bed I couldn't go to sleep, 'cause I kep' thinkin' over
the hull matter. That day an' that ere bright night hev al'ays seemed to
me jist like two days into one. Thar wurn't any daybreak, fur the
moonlight wuz ez bright ez daylight, an' you couldn't tell when one went
an' another come. I s'pose though, arter all, that wuz a nat'rul thing
in June, when the sun rises 'arliest in the year; but I never noticed it
afore ur sence.
Two ur three days arterward, some o' the neighbors stopped to the house
in the edge o'the ev'nin', an' mongst other things that wuz talked over
wuz that ere ship; fur, you see, she hed been noticed by all the people
o' that section the week afore, an' now she wuz gone--nothin' more'd
been seen o' her. I told what John an' me hed seen, an' so the story got
afloat. All summer long, way into fall, neighbors an' people livin'
quite a distance away would stop and ask me 'bout it--full a dozen men
from the middle o' the Islan' stopped, fust an' last, to ask me if it
twan't the same ship some o' their mowers see, one foggy day six weeks
later on, when they wuz on the Beach cuttin' salt hay. Winter nights, we
now an' then would git to talkin' it over 'round the fireplace. Well,
time went on, an' young people ez they growed up would ask me to tell it
to them.
I've told it a good many times--a good many times. You see, it wur over
fifty year ago sence it happened.
"Did anybody go to the spot an' see what wuz buried thar?"
Some dare-devils from away West somewheres tried to dig thar. They took
a clear night with only a little wind a-blowin' an' a few clouds afloat,
but when they got fairly to work, it grew pitch dark, an' foggy, ez
quick ez a candle goes out. The air got so thick they couldn't scarcely
breathe, an' then a skel'ton ghost with a dagger in its hand, that hed
some kind o' pale flame creepin' an' burnin' on the blade, 'peared right
above 'em. It stood a minute an' shook the dagger, an' then begun to
move 'round 'em, comin' nearer an' nearer, till the men run headlong fur
their boat, shakin' cold, they wuz so scared.
I heerd one on 'em say, ten year arter, that that wuz the only time in
all his life his hair ever stood on end.
But nobody round here never dug thar. They never even probed thar. They
never tried the min'rul rod thar nuther, ez they did sometimes in other
spots. Ev'rybody roun' this ere part o' the Islan' knowed better. The
treasure buried thar wuz enchanted treasure. Nobody meddles with
enchanted treasure that knows what enchanted treasure is.
"What made it enchanted?"
That fifth man wuz a pris'ner they'd taken frum some ship they'd run
down, robbed, an' destroyed with the rest on the crew. They'd got ready
to come ashore to bury treasure, an' they ordered him to go long with
'em to help do it. He went, doin' his part o' the work jist ez ef he wur
one o' the gang.
They go ashore, mek up their minds 'bout the spot, take their ranges so
they kin come back to the spot when they want to, an' then begin to dig.
When the hole is dug deep enough, they set the treasure into the hole,
an' all stan' in thar aroun' it. The leader o' the gang tells the
pris'ner that he's got to stay by that ere treasure an' guard it, so
nobody kin ever git it but them.
They mek him sw'ar with some kind o' an oath that he will. Then they mek
way with him, an' put his body over the treasure.
That's why we couldn't mek out no more 'an four men goin' back when five
come ashore. Them four men murdered the fifth one, an' in so doin'
enchanted the treasure.
It wuz sealed in human blood, an' the devil himself wuz thar in full
charge. An' that's why thunder an' lightnin' comes, an' spectres is
seen, an' the treasure sinks lower an' lower, an' the hole caves, when
people hev tried to dig up enchanted treasure. An' that's why, too, so
little buried treasure hez ever been found, 'cause pirates mos' al'ays
enchant it, an' sometimes enchant it double. They murder their
pris'ners, an' bury 'em, knife in hand, settin' on the treasure to guard
it.
[Illustration: (uncaptioned)]