Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-03-24

- a. t-4-A SAeiA 'fftN4 Ne.-- A-'''A'N 80
voice, but it's some one skylarking-
some one that's flesh and blood, and
you may lay to that"
His courage had come back as he
spoke. and some of the color TO his face
along with il. Already the others had
begun to lend an ear TO this encourage
ment. and were coming little to them
selves. when the same voice broke out
again-not this time singing. but in
faint. distant hail, that echoed yet
fainter among the clefts of the Spy
glass.
DARBY M'Graw," it wailed-for that
is the word that best describes the
sound - Darby MGraw! Darby
MGraw," again and again and again.
and then rising a little higher, and with
an oath that l leave out: Fetch aft the
rum, D:rby."
The buccaneers remained rooted to
the ground, their eyes starting from
their heads. Long after the voice had
died away they still stared in silence,
dreadfully, before them.
That fixes it," gasped one. Lets
CO."
They was his last words" moaned
Morgan; his last words above-board."
Dicl. had his Bible out and was pray
ing volubly. lie had been well brought
up. had Dick, before he came TO sea
and fell among bad companions.
Still. Silver was unconquered. could
hear his teeth rattle in his head; but he
had not yet surrendered.
Nobody in this here island ever
heard of Darby" he muttered; mot one
but us that's here And then, making
q great effort: "Shipmates," he cried,
I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not
be beat by man nor devil. | never was
feared of Flint in his life, and. by the
rowers. I'll face him dead. There's
& 700, COO rot quarter of mile from
here. When did ever gentleman o
fortune show his stern to that much
dollars, for a boozy 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-
euce OF his words.
Delay there, joint" said Merry.
Don't you cross a sperrit."
And the rest were all too terrified TO
reply. They would have run away
severally 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.
"Sperr;t? Well, maybe" he said.
But there's one thing not clear to me.
There was an echo. Now. 10 man ever
seen a sperrit with shadow; well,
then. what's he doing with an echo TO
him, should like to know? That amt
in na;ur'. surely?"
This argument seemed weak enough
to ne But you can never tell what will
affect the srrerstitious. and. to my
wonder. George Merry was greatly re-
lievel.
wei. ihat's So" he said. You've q
head 1Aon yau~ shoulders. .Ichn. an6
no mistake Bout ship, mates! This
here crew is on the wrong tack, do be-
lieve. And come TO think on it, it was
lie Flint's voice, grant you, but not
just so clear away like it, after all. 1t
was liker somebody else's voice now
il was like"
"By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared
Silver
CAY, and so it were," cried Morgan,
springing on his knees. Ben Gum it
were!"
"Tt 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-
It's had returned, and how the natural
color had revived in their faces. Soon
they were chatting together, with in
tervals of listening; and not long after,
hearing 10 further sound, they shoul-
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 glances; but he found no SYM
pathy, and Silver even jolsed him on his
precautions.
az told you," said he-"I told you, you
had spilled your Bible. If 1t amt no
good to swear by, what do you suppose
a sperrit would give for it? Not that!"
and he snapped his big fingers, hating
moment on his crutch.
But Dick was not to be comforted;
indeed, it was soon plain to me that the
lad was falling sick; fastened by heat,
exhaustion, and the shock of his alarm,
the fever, predicted by DR.. Livesey, was
evidently growing swiftly higher.
1t was fine open walking here, upon
the summit; our way lay little down
hill, for, as have said, the plateau
tilted toward the west. The pines,
great and small, grew wide apart; and
even between the clumps 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 L
had once tossed and trembled in the
coracle.
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
clump Of underwood; giant of veg
etable, with 4 red column as big as
cottage, and wide shadow around In
which company could have man
euvered. 1t was conspicuous far to sea
both on the east and west, and might
have been entered as a sailing mark
upon the chart.
But 1t was not its size that now i'm
pressed my companions; it was the
knowledge that 100000 In gold lay
somewhere buried below its 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 soul
was bound up in that fortune, that
whole lifetime of extravaganza and
pleasure, that lay waiting there for
each of them.
Silver hobbled, grunting, on his
crutch, his nostrils stood out and qufv-
cred: he cursed like madman when
the flies settled on his hot and shiny
countenance; he plucked furiously at
the line that held me TO him, and, from
.;,x,o Z, TINA turned his owes tInnp me