Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-24

20 unoomfortabiy warm as lower down.
Anna held me by the arm. anxious. not for
herself but lest I should venture too near.
She need not have troubled, though the ac-
ton comfortsd me.
This is what We saw: A huge black gulf
or pot hole with straight sides. cracked
ana creeper-grown, sank for thirty or forty
feet sheer down. The floor OF this curious
natural tower or volcanic crater was arched
like the bulge which comes In the middle OF
pot just before the water boils.
Eborra pointed downward with his hook.
THE place of Morgan's treasure" he said
grimly; at is waiting there for the brave
man who will come to take itv'
The black well of the tower was diver
siied by curious grooved rings set at inter
walls. In these were holes, many of them
large enough to thrust a mans arm into.
We saw no steam or fire. but the whole
smelt sulphurous, and moist heat like
that which rises from wet sands under
burning sun wavered visibly about us.
l knew not what he meant. 1 could
neither See anything resembling treasure,
nor yet the dread guardian of whom he
spoke. But Yellow Jack lay with his face
over the edge. smiling gently and watching
the bottom of the black pot hole.
Look he cried suddenly, pointing with
his hook.
And then for the first time 1 observed
that the bubble-ake black floor beneath us
was not wholly stationary. 1t appeared to
be solid. 1 would have walked upon it
without fear. but yet the whole seemed TO
ceptibly. Indeed, the only way in which
the motion of the mass could be noted was
by watching the positions of the sticks and
stumps of trees which stood out from the
surface.
The object at which Eborra desired us to
look was a sQuare-shaped box or cube OF
wood. For nothing could be discovered Of
its internal condition because Of the black
coating Of pitch which covered it, and hung
down from its tilted edge like ill-melted
wax.
"Morgan's treasurer affirmed our guide.
confidently; "also many more! Obi turns
them in the hollow of his hand"
was still more mystified than before. and
did not even ask q question. The black
cube was slowly lifted upward, turning in
visibly all the time. SO that angle which
had been averse from us at first next point
ed to the zenith, and afterward inclined to-
ward US, before finally sinking out of sight
beneath the surface.
At last Yellow Jack deigned to explain.
Pitch he said, what is thrown In does
not sink, but turns and turns forsver-now
above. now below. Morgan's men threw it
in before Capt. Stansfeld took the island
from them He never found it. But
Eborra's mother knew. Eborra knows.
Now you know
But said I, eff the treasure be down
there, why do you not get 1t out? Sooner
or later some one will stumble upon this
place and rob you of the treasure. You
should hide it in a safer place"
There is none" said our guide. conf
L
you the guardians Of the treasure. Do not
move. Only look!''
The half-caste leaned far over into the
interior Of the tower. He humnled the
strange minor tune in louder tone. Moth
ing that L could see happened. Then sud-
denly he whistled shrilly, and even as we
looked we saw the circular lodges suddenly
wake into hideous life. From each of the
black pigeonholes protruded fiat and ugly
head. Then the rudy coils of q snake seven
or eight feet long and as thick as my arm
appeared, till all the circular we'll of the
strange tower appeared to be alive with
horrid waving scales.
Yellow Jack leaned still farther over and
whistled quick, juggling tune. At the first
sound of 1t the great poison snakes opened
their jaws so wide that the white fangs
could be seen hanging down clear of the
thin, retracted lip. As the time quckened
every serpent gathered itself into a coil
with its head in the center and began to
dance up and down in time to the music
There must have been several hundreds of
them beneath US down in the black gulIet
Of the crater.
The lad stopped and resumed the hum
ming noise he had been making all the
way up the hill. Whereupon the snakes, as
If soothed, began to creep back to their
holes without taking any further notice
of us or of the snake charmer.
We scrambled down in haste, and as we
took hands over that unholy creeping
mound Eborra jerked his hook back over
his shoulder in the direction of the pitch
crater.
'Fer-de-lance" he said "As the light
ming strikes he strikes! Fer-de-lance guard
Morgan's treasurer
snake in the world, of which every child
on the island had terrible stories to tell
/ resolved within me that it would take
many Morsan's treasures to tempt me
within reach of those gaping jaws, lash
ing tails and white, cleaning fangs.
fT0 be c0ntinued.1