Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1924-01-04

L grant you, but not just so clear
away like it, after all. 1t was likeI
somebody else's voice now 1t was
like"
"By the powers, Ben Gunnr
roared Silver.
AYE, and so it were," cried Nor
gan. springing on his knees. ben
Gum it werel"
1T don't make much odds, do ii
now?' asked Dick. ben Gums
not here in the body, any more'n
Flint" But the older hands greet
ed this remark with scorn.
'Why, nobody minds Ben Gum,
cried Merry; dead or alive, nobody
minds himl"
1t was extraordinary how their
spirits had returned, and how the
natural color had revived in their
faces. Soon they were chatting to-
gether, with intervals of listening,
and not long after, hearing no furth-
er sound, they shouldered the tools
and set forth again, Merry walking
irst with Silvers compass to keep
them on the right line with Skeleton.
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 sympathy, and Silver even joked
him on his precautions.
81 told YOU" said he, 81 told you
you had spilled your Bible. If it
amt no good to swear by, what do
you suppose a sperrit would give for
. l. cd "a E
big fingers, hating moment on his
cruth.
But Dick was not to be comfOrted:
indeed, il 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
Doctor Livesey, was evidently grow
ing swiftly higher.
II was fine open walking here, up
on the summit; our way lay a little
dOwnhill, for. as | have said, the
plateau tilted toward the west. The
pines, great and small, grew apart;
and even between the clumps of nut
meg and azalea wide open spaces
baked in the hot sunshine. Striking
as we did pretty near northwest
across the island we drew, on the
other hand, ever nearer under the
shoulders of the Spy-glass, and on
the other, looked ever wider over
that western bay where | had once
tossed and trembled in the coraele.
The first of the tall trees was
reached. and by the bearing, proved
the wrong one, SO with the second
The third rose nearly two hundred
INT as, al, 81
underwood; a giant of a vegetable
with a red column as big as a cot
tage, and a wide shadow around in
which a company could have man
euvered II was conspicuous far to
sea, both on the east and west, and
might have been entered as a sail
ing mark upon the chart.
But il was not its size that now
impressed my companions; It was the
knowledge that seven hundred thou
sand pounds in gold lay somewhere
buried below its spreading shadow
The thought of the money, as they
drew nearer swallowed up their pre-
vious 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 plea
sure, that lay waiting there for each
of them.
Silver hobbled, grunting, on his
crutch; his nostrils stood out and
quivered; he cursed like a madman
when the flies settled on his hot and
shiny countenance; he plucked fur
iously at the line that held me to
I'M funa 10 Il
his eyes upon me with a deadly look
Certainly he took no pains to hide
his thoughts; and certainly / 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 OIL
the past; and l could not doubt that
he hoped to seize upon the treasure.
find and board the Hispaniola 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 ] was with these alarms
it was hard for me TO keep up with
the rapid pace of the treasure-hunt-
ers. Now and again / tumbled, and
It was then that Silver plucked so
roughly at the rope and launched at
me his murderous 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 Indebtedness, and, to crown all,
I was haunted by the thought of the
tragedy that had once been acted or
that plateau, when that ungodly buc-
cancer with the blue face-he who
had died at Savannah singing and
shouting for drink-had there, with
his own hand. cut down his six ae-
This grove, that was now
80 peaceful must then have rung
with cries, l thought; and even with
The thought l could believe / heard
t ringing still.
We were now at the margin Of the
-hicket.
"Huzza, mates, all togetheri"
shouted Merry, and the foremost
broke into a run.
And suddenly, not ten yards far
her, we beheld them stop. A low
cry arose. Silver doubled his pace,
digging away with the foot of hisl
,rutch like one possessed, and nextl
he and l had come also to
4 dead halt.