Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1924-01-04
CHAPTER XxXII
The Treasure-Hut - The Voice
Among the Trees

Among the Trees
Partly from the dampening influ-
ence of this alarm, partly to rest, Sill
yer and the sick folk, the whole par
ty sat down as soon as they had
gained the brow of the ascent.
The plateau being somewhat tilted
toward the west, this spot on which
we had paused commanded a wide
prospect on either hand. Before us,
over the tree-tops, we beheld the
Cape of the Woods fringed with surf;
behind, We not only looked down up
on the anchorage and Skeleton Is
land, but saw-elear across the spit
and the eastern lowlands-a great
field of open sea upon the east. Sheer
above us rose the Spy-glass, here dot
ted with single pines, there black
with precipices. There was no sound
but that of the distant breakers
mounting from all around, and the
chirp of countless insects in the
brush. Not a man, not sail upon
the sea; the very largeness of the
view increased the sense of solitude.
Silver, as he sat, took certain bear
ings with his compass.
"There are three tall trees, said
he, 'about in the right line from
Skeleton Island. 'Spy-glass Shoulder,
/ take it, means that lower pint
there. It's child's play to find the
stuff now. I've half a mind to dine
first"
81 don't feel sharp" growled Nor
gan. "Thinkin' o. Flint think 1t
were-'as done me"
"Ah, we'll, my son, you praise your
stars he's dead" said Silver.
"He was an ugly devil" cried a
third pirate, with a shudder; "and
that blue in the face, tool"
"That was how the rum took him,
added Merry.
"Bluei well / reckon he was blue.
That's true word"
Ever since they had found the
skeleton and got upon this train Of
thought they had spoken lower and
lower, and they had almost got to
whispering by now, so that the sound
of their talk hardly interrupted the
silence of the wood. All of a sud
den out of the middle of the trees
in front of us, a thin, high, and
trembling voice struck up the we'll
known air and words:
Fifteen men on a dead mans
chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum -
never have seen men more dread
fully affected than the pirates. The
color went from their six faces like
enchantment; some leaped to their
feet, some clawed hold of others;
Morgan groveled on the ground.
Its Flint, by" cried Merry.
The song had stopped as suddenly
as it began-broken off, you would
have said, in the middle of a note,
as though someone had laid his hand
upon the singers mouth. Coming
so far through the clear, sunny at
mospere among the green tree-tops,
/ thought it had sounded airily and
sWeetly, and the effect on my COM
panions was the stranger.
Come" said Silver, struggling
with his ashen lips to get the word
out, "that won't do. Stand by to go
about. This is a rum start, and
can't name the voice, but it's some
one skylarking- someone 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 it. Already the Others
had begun to lend an ear to this en-
couragement, and were coming a lit
tie to themselves, when the same
voice broke out again-not this time
singing, but in a faint, distant hail,
that echoed yet fainter among the
clefts of the Spy-glass.
DARBY McGraw," it wailed-for
that is the word that best describes
h 10 r1,xr NJ ysqx mo- rib
McGrawl" again and again and
again; and then rising little high
er, and with an oath that leave out: !
Fetch aft the rum, Darby!"
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'll" gasped one. Lets
"They was his last words"
moaned Morgan, ''his last words
Dick had his Bible out and was
praying yolubly. He had been well
brought up, had Dick, before he came
to sea and fell among bad compan-
ions.
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,
a great effort: "Shipmates, -
he cried, I'm here to get that stuff, /
and I'll not be beat by man or devil |
J. never was feared of Flint in his
life, and by the powers. I'll face him
dead. There's seven hundred thou
sand pound not a quarter of mile
from here. When did ever gentle
man O. fortune show his stern to
that much dollars for booty old sea-
man with a blue mug-and him dead,
too?"
But there was no sign of reawak-
ening courage in his followers;
rather indeed, of growing terror at
the irreverance of his words.
Delay there, John!" said Merry.
Don't you cross a sperrit."
And the rest were all too terrified
to reply They would have run away
seyerally had they dared, but fear
kept them together, and kept them
close by John, as If his daring helped