Willmar tribune., 1898-06-14

| seen a sperrit with a shadow; well,
then, what's he doing with an echo to
him, I should like to know? That ain't
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.
"Well, that's so," 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, grant you, but not
just so clear away like it, after al. It
| was liker somebody else's voice now
| it was like"
"By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared
Silver.
cay, and so it were," cried Morgan,
| springing on his knees. "Ben Gum it
! were!"
'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.
1t was extraordinary how their spir-
color had revived in their faces. Soon
they were chatting together, with in
terva,s Of listening; and not long after.
hearing no 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
Den 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 joked him on his
precautions.
II tod you," said he-t'I told you, you
had spilled your Di BILE. 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 DR.. Live
sey, was evidently growing swiftly
higher.
1t was fine open walking here, upon
the summit; our way lay little down.
hill, for, as I have said, the plateau
tilted toward 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 tremb.ed 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 a
clump of underwood; giant of veg
etabie, with red column as big as
cottage, and wide shadow around in
euyered. It was conspicuous far to sea
both on the east and west. and might
have been entered as a sailing mark
upon the chart.
But it was not it's size that now i'm
pressed my companions; it was the
knowledge that e700,000 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 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 quiv-
cred; he cursed like a madman when
the flies settled on his hot and shiny
countenance; he plucked furiously at
the line that held me to him, and, from
time to time, turned his eyes upon me
with a deadly look. Certainly he took
no pains to hide his thoughts; and cer-
tainly I read them like print. In the
immediate nearness of the gold, all
else had been forgotten; his promise
and the doctors warning were both
things of the past; and I could not
doubt that he hoped to seize upon the
treasure, find and board the 'His-
PAMELA" under cover of night, cut every
honest throat about that island, and sail
away as he had at first intended, laden
| with crimes and riches. ..'-
Shaken as I was with these alarms,
it was hard for me to keep up with the
rapid pace of the treasure hunters.
Now and again I tumbled; and it was
then that Silver plucked SO roughly at
the rope and launched at me his mur-
derous glances. Dick, who had dropped
behind us, and now brought up the
rear, was babbling to- himself both
prayers and curses, as his fever kept
rising. This also added to my wn,tch-
edness, and, to crown all, I was haunted
I by the thought Of the tragedy that had