The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1907-04-27
CHAPTER VI.

CHATTER ' L.
When | came to look about me I found
that we were standing in a third cavern,
though it was so encountered with broken
masses of the fallen cliff that its form
and dimensions were at first indistngush-
able. One thing was clear; it was in
this cave that the explosion had taken
place. Many of the fragments were on
one face black with powder. Among them
were scattered in every direction slaves
of tubs, iron hoops, rusted vessels, scraps
of timber, iron bolts, and odds and ends
of cloth and wooden garments. Ny foot
struck against long seaman's bot; it
gave an odd rattle under the shock, and
when l lifted it up two or three snail
white bones fell out. They were the
bones of n foot.
Every step l took my foot seemed to
be crunching the bones of a dead MAJ.
Presently l came to the spot where
Psyche was anxiously waiting to show
me the chef doeuvre of her curiosities.
She stood before a large square block
of chalk, which she had arranged ds a
kind of altar, grouping upon it all that
she had found most curious in the cave.
Pistols, knives, hatchets, tobacco boxes,
shells, pieces of broken glass and the
like were massed on each side, but the
place of honor between them was occu-
pied by a pyramid of four skulls; in the
orbits of the top one piece of oyster shell
had been placed, and the pearly surface
rejecting the light from the candle gave
it an appearance that would have been
ludicrous if it had not been CHASTITY.
l glanced in terror at Psyche, to see
what effect this grisly show had upon
her. She was smiling and swaying her
head gracefully from side to side to the
low murmuring music of her oNn voice.
Then / perceived that the poor creature
must indeed have lost her reason, unless
her pleasure in the face of such repulsive
mementoes of mortality was due to utter
ignorance of life and death.
1t was kind of pagan hymn she sang.
When it was finished she drew me closer
to the altar, and with a sweep of the
hand drew my attention to the surface on
which her relics were mounted. y fresh
surprise confronted me; the block was
covered with pieces of gold laid side by
side as close as they would go. | took
one up, and found it was Louis dor of
1895. / reckoned there were nearly a
hundred of these pieces in a row, and
the block being square, this cover repre-
scented a sum of about 10000, if all the
pieces were of the same value.
My establishment as / held the coin in
my hand being observed by Psyche, to her
great delight, she led me to that end of
the cave which was less affected by the
explosion, and pointed to another OF the
gold pieces let into hole in the wall. On
the chalk below, written in rude charac-
tiers with a piece of charcoal, were these
words:
ITO Peter Beamish--French Peter and
his lads leave you this for a present,
as specimen of the lead, in the square
chest, which you give us for our sheer
out of the French Hoy. Let this be a
warning to you to play fair next time
you go wreckin' -
From this evidence it seemed to me
probable that these rascals, after quarrel
ing over the spoil taken from the French
Hoy, had eparated-F'rench Peter and
his party going to the caves, my great
grandfather with his crew resting in the
house above, and that the gunpowder had
been accidentally fred, causing the fall
of the cliff and their own annihilation
in the very moment of their triumph.
stood lost in wonder over this last
discovery. | did not question my right
as proprietor of these caves with the
land above to appropriate he fortune
found upon it, and my imagination leaped
at the use / might make of 1t to obtain
the hand of Miss Duncan. That prospect
intoxicated me, and for the moment it
seemed as If the unhol spirit of the
dead wreckers whose b 1es were before
my eyes had taken possession of me.
From this state of abstraction / was
aroused by gentle touch upon my arm,
and turning my regard from, the gold
that had so fascinated me. l found
Psyche looking into my face with trou-
bled solicitude, unable to understand my
preoccupation, and why l had forgotten
her.
Heaven forgive my seliishness," |
said. "You shall be saved before think
Of anything else, poor Psyche ~
Poor Psyche!" she echoed, In the