Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-09-29


e 100000 not quarter of a mile from
here. When did ever a gentleman o.
fortune show his stern to that much
dollars, for a booty old seaman with
blue mug-and him dead, too?"
But there was no sign of reawakening
courage in his followers; rather, in
deed. Of growing terror at the irrever-
ence of his words.
Delay there, John!" said Merry.
Don't you cross sperrit."
And the rest were all too terrified to
reply. They would have run away
severa11y had they dared, but fear kept
them together, and kept them close by
John, as if his daring helped them.
He. on his part. had pretty well fought
his weakness down.
'Sperrit? Well, maybe" he said.
"But there's one thing not clear to me.
There was an echo. Now, no man ever
seen sperrit with a shadow; well,
then, what's he doing with an echo to
him, should like to know? That amt
in natur', surely?"
This argument seemed weak enough
to me. But you can never tell what will
affect the superstitious, and, to my
wonder, George Merry was greatly re-
lieved.
'sWell, that's SOL he said you've
head upon your shoulders, John, and
no mistake. Bout ship, mates! This
here crew is on the wrong tack. I do be-
lieve. And come to think on it, it was
like Flint's voice, I grant you, but not
just so clear away like it, after all. It
was liker somebody else's voice now
it was like
"By the powers. Ben Gunn!" roared
Silver.
GAY. and so it were," cried Morgan,
springing on his knees. "Ben Gum it
werei''
''It don't make much odds, do it.,
now" asked Dick. "Ben Gums not
here in the body, any more'n Flint
But the older hands greeted this re-
mark with scorn. why, nobody minds
Ben Gunn," cried Merry; "dead or alive,
| nobody minds him."
| It was extraordinary how their spir-
! its had returned, and how the natural
| color had revived in their faces. Soon
they We're chatting together, with in
| tervals of listening; and not long after,
| hearing no further sound. they Shout
| dered the tools and set forth again,
| Merry walking first with Silver's COM
pass to keep them on the right line
| with Skeleton island. He had said the
| truth; dead or alive, nobody minded
Ben Gum.
| Dick alone still held his Bible, and
| looked around him as he went. with
| fearful chances: but he found no sym
pathy, and Silver even joked him on his
| precautions.
ST told you," said he-"I told you, you
had spilled your Bible. If it amt no
| good to swear by, what do you suppose
sperrit would give for it? Not that!"
and he snapped his big fingers, hating
a moment on his crutch.
But Dick was not to be comforted;
indeed, it was soon plain to me that
the lad was falling sick; hastened by
heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his
alarm, the fever, predicted by DIR. Live
sey, was evidently growing swiftly
| higher.
It was fine open walking here, upon
the summit; our way lay a little down
hill. for, as have said, the plateau
| tilted tovard the west. The pines,
great and Small, grew wide apart; and
even between the ciumps of nutmeg
and aZalea, wide open spaces baked in
| the hot sunshine. Striking, as we did
| pretty near northwest across the
island, we drew, on the one hand, ever
nearer under the shoulders of the Spy
| glass, and on the other, looked ever
wider over that western bay where I
| had once tossed and trembled in the
| corac1e.
The first of the tall trees was reached
and by the bearing, proved the wrong
one. So with the second. The third rose
nearly 200 feet into the air above a
clump of underwood; giant of veg
| etable, with red column as big as a
| cottage, and a wide shadow around in
which a company could have man
euvered. Tt was conspicuous far to sea
both on the east and west, and might
have been entered as sailing mark
upon the chart.
But it was not its size that now i'm
pressed my companions; it was the
| knowledge that e 100000 in gold lay
somewhere buried below it's spread
ing shadow. The thought of the
| money, as they drew nearer, swallowed
up their previous terrors. Their eyes
burned in their heads; their feet grew
speedier and lighter; their whole sou
was bound up in that fortune, that
whole lifetime of extravaganza and
pleasure, that lay waiting there fol
each of them.
Silver hobbled, grunting, on his
crutch, his nostrils stood out and quiz
cred; he cursed like a mailman wher
| the flies settled on his hot and shiny
countenance; he plucked furiously al
| the line that held me to him, and, from
time to time, turned his eyes upon me
with a deadly look Certainly he tool
no pains to hide his thoughts; and Ger
tainly read them like print. In the
| immediate nearueSS of the gold. al