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The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The gold Bug Edgar Allan Poe.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: What Ho, what Ho? This fellow is dancing mad. He
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: hath been bitten by the tarantula all in the wrong.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a mister
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: William Legrand. He was of an ancient Huguenot family and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: had once been wealthy, but a series of misfortunes had
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: reduced him to want to avoid the mortification consequent upon
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: his disasters, he left New Orleans, the city of his forefathers,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and took up his residence at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: South Carolina. This island is a very singular one. It
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: consists of little else than the sea sand, and is
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  Speaker 1: about three miles long. It's bread that no point exceeds
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  Speaker 1: a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: main land by a scarcely perceptible creek, losing its way
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  Speaker 1: through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favorite resort
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of the marsh hen The vegetation, as might be supposed,
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  Speaker 1: is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: magnitude are to be seen near the western extremity, where
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Fort Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: tenanted during summer by the fugitives from Charleston. Dust and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: fever may be found indeed the bristly palmetto. But the
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  Speaker 1: whole island, with the exception of this western point and
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  Speaker 1: a line of hard white beach on the sea coast,
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  Speaker 1: is covered with the dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle,
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  Speaker 1: so much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: here often attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet
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  Speaker 1: and forms an almost impenetrable coppice, burthening the air with
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  Speaker 1: its fragrance. In the inmost recesses of this coppice. Not
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  Speaker 1: far from the eastern or more remote end of the island,
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  Speaker 1: Legrand had built himself a small hut, which he occupied
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  Speaker 1: when I first, by mere accident, made his acquaintance. This
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: soon ripened into friendship, for there was much in the
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  Speaker 1: recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him well educated,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: with unusual powers of mind, but infected with misanthropy, and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: subject to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. He
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: had with him many books, but rarely employed them. His
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: chief amusements were gunning and fishing, or sauntering along the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: beach and through the myrtles in quest of shells or
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: entomological specimens. His collection of the latter might have been
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: envied by a swamerdown. In these excursions he was usually
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: accompanied by an old negro called Jupiter, who had been
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: manumitted before the reverses of the family, but who could
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: be induced neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: what he considered his right of attendance upon the footsteps
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of his young massa will. It is not improbable that
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the relatives of Le Grande, conceiving him to be somewhat
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: unsettled in intellect, had contrived to instill this obstinacy into Jupiter,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with a view to the supervision and guardian ship of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the Wanderer. The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: are seldom very severe, and in the fall of the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: year it is a rare event, indeed, when a fire
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is considered necessary. About the middle of October eighteen there occurred, however,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a day of remarkable chilliness just before sunset, I scrambled
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend,
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  Speaker 1: whom I had not visited for several weeks, my residence
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: being at that time in Charleston, a distance of nine
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: miles from the island, while the facilities of passage and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: repassage were very far behind those of the present day.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Upon reaching the hut, I wrapped, as was my custom,
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  Speaker 1: and getting no reply, sought for the key where I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: knew it was secreted, unlocked the door, and went in.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: A fine fire was blazing upon the hearth. It was
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  Speaker 1: a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: threw off an overcoat, took an arm chair by the
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  Speaker 1: crackling logs, and awaited patiently the arrival of my hosts.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Soon after dark they arrived and gave me a most
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  Speaker 1: cordial welcome. Jupiter, grinning from year to ear, bustled about
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  Speaker 1: to prepare some marsh hens for supper. Le Grand was
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  Speaker 1: in one of his fits, how else shall I term them?
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  Speaker 1: Of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve forming a
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  Speaker 1: new genus. And more than this, he had hunted down
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  Speaker 1: and secured, with Jupiter's assistance, a Scarabeus, which he believed
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  Speaker 1: to be totally new, but in respect to which he
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  Speaker 1: wished to have my opinion on the morrow, And why
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  Speaker 1: not to night, I asked, rubbing my hands over the
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  Speaker 1: blaze and wishing the whole tribe of Scarabie at the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: devil ah. If I had only known you were here,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: said La grand. But it so long since I saw you,
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  Speaker 1: and how could I foresee that you would pay me
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  Speaker 1: a visit this very night, of all others. As I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: was coming home, I met Lieutenant g from the fort,
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  Speaker 1: and very foolishly I lent him the bug, so it
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: will be impossible for you to see it until the morning.
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  Speaker 1: Stay here tonight and I will send jump down for
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it at sunrise. It is the loveliest thing in creation.
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  Speaker 1: What sunrise? Nonsense? No, the bug. It is of a
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  Speaker 1: brilliant gold color, about the size of a large hickory nut,
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  Speaker 1: with two jet black spots near one extremity of the
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  Speaker 1: back and another somewhat longer at the other. The antennae
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  Speaker 1: r day, ain't no tin in him? Masa, will I
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: keep a tellin on you here? Interrupted Jupiter. The bug
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: is a ghoul bug, solid ebery bit of him inside
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and all sep him wing never feel half so heavy
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  Speaker 1: a bug in my life. Well suppose it is, jump,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: replied Legrand, somewhat more earnestly. It seemed to me than
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the case demanded. Is that any reason for your letting
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the birds burn? The color here, he turned to me,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: is really almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea. You never
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: saw a more brilliant metallic luster than the scales emit.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: But of this you cannot judge till tomorrow. In the meantime,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I can give you some idea of the shape. Saying this,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: he seated himself at a small table, on which were
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a pen and ink, but no paper. He looked for
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: some in a drawer, but found none. Never mind, said
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: he at length, this will answer, And he drew from
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  Speaker 1: his waistcoat pocket a scrap of what I took to
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: be very dirty fool's cap, and made upon it a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: rough drawing with the pen. While he did this, I
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: retained my seat by the fire, for I was still chilly.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: When the design was complete, he handed it to me
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: without rising. As I received it, a loud growl was heard,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: succeeded by a scratching at the door. Jupiter opened it,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and a large Newfoundland belonging to the Grand rushed in,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: leaped upon my shoulders and loaded me with caresses, for
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I had shown him much attention during previous visits. When
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: his gambols were over, I looked at the paper, and,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: to speak the truth, found myself not a little puzzled
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: at what my friend had depicted. Well, I said, after
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: contemplating it for some minutes, this is a strange Scarabaeus,
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  Speaker 1: I must confess new to me. Never saw anything like
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: it before, unless it was a skull or a deatha's head,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: which it more nearly resembles than anything else that has
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  Speaker 1: come under my observation. A deatha's head, echoed Le Grand. Oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: well it has something of that appearance upon paper, no doubt.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: The two upper black spots look like eyes, eh, and
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the longer one at the bottom like a mouth. And
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: then the shape of the hole is oval, perhaps so,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: said I. But Le Grand, I fear you are no artist.
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  Speaker 1: I must wait until I see the beetle itself. If
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  Speaker 1: I am to form any idea of its personal appearance. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, said he, a little nettled. I draw
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  Speaker 1: tolerably should do it at least have had good masters
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  Speaker 1: and flatter myself that I am not quite a blockhead.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: But my dear fellow, you are joking, then, said I,
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  Speaker 1: this is a very passable skull. Indeed, I may say
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  Speaker 1: that it is a very excellent skull according to the
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  Speaker 1: vulgar notions about such specimens of physiology. And your scarabeus
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: must be the queerest scarabeus in the world. If it
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: resembles it, why we may get up a very thrilling
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  Speaker 1: bit of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will
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  Speaker 1: call the bug scarabeus cap at hominus, or something of
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  Speaker 1: that kind. There are many similar titles in the natural histories.
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  Speaker 1: But where are the antennae? You spoke of? The antennae,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: said le Grand, who seemed to be getting unaccountably warm
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  Speaker 1: upon the subject. I am sure you must see the antennae.
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  Speaker 1: I made them as distinct as they are in the
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  Speaker 1: original insect, and I presume that is sufficient. Well, well,
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  Speaker 1: I said, perhaps you have. Still I don't see them,
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  Speaker 1: And I handed him the paper without additional remark, not
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: wishing to ruffle his temper. But I was much surprised
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: at the turn affairs had taken. His ill humor puzzled me,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: And as for the drawing of the beetle, there were
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  Speaker 1: positively no antenna visible, and the hole did bear a
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: very close resemblance to the ordinary cuts of a deatha's head.
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  Speaker 1: He received the paper very peevishly, and was about to
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  Speaker 1: crumple it, apparently to throw it in the fire, when
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  Speaker 1: a casual glance at the design seemed suddenly to rivet
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  Speaker 1: his attention. In an instant, his face grew violently red
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  Speaker 1: in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he continued
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  Speaker 1: to scrutinize the drawing minutely. Where he sat at length,
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  Speaker 1: He arose, took a candle from the table, and proceeded
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to seat himself upon a sea chest in the farthest
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  Speaker 1: corner of the room. Here again he made an anxious
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: examination of the paper, turning it in all directions. He
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: said nothing, however, and his conduct greatly astonished me. Yet
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  Speaker 1: I thought it prudent not to exacerbate the growing moodiness
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of his temper by any comment. Presently, he took from
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  Speaker 1: his coat pocket a wallet, placed the paper carefully in it,
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  Speaker 1: and deposited both in a writing desk, which he locked.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: He now grew more composed in his demeanor, but his
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: original air of enthusiasm had quite disappeared. Yet he seemed
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: not so much sulky as abstracted. As the evening wore away,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: he became more and more absorbed in revery, from which
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: no sallies of mine could arouse him. It had been
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: my intention to pass the night at the hut, as
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I had frequently done before, But seeing my host in
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: this mood, I deemed it proper to take leave. He
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: did not press me to remain, but as I departed,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: he shook my hand with even more than his usual credality.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It was about a month after this, and during the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: interval I had seen nothing of le Grand when I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: received a visit at Charleston from his man Jupiter. I
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: had never seen the good old Negro look so dispirited,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my friend,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: well Jup, said I, what is the matter now? How
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: is your master? Why to speak to Masa? Him not
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: so very well as Mott be not well? I am
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: truly sorry to hear it. What does he complain of Darr?
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  Speaker 1: That's it? Him? Never plain of noton, but him very
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: sick for all that very sick Jupiter, why didn't you
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: say so at once? Is he confined to bed? No
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that he ain't he ain't finn nauhar, that's just war
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to shoe pinch. My mind has got to be very
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: heavy bout poor Massa. Will Jupiter, I should like to
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: understand what it is you are talking about. You say
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: your master is sick. Hasn't he told you what ails him?
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  Speaker 1: Why Masa tain't wharf while for to get mad about
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the matter? Masa will say nothin at all ain't the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: matter with him? But then what make him go about
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: looking this here way? Would he head down? And he
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: soldiers up and as white as a ghost. And then
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: he keeps a siphon all the time, keeps away. But
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Jupiter keeps a siphon with the figures on the slate,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the queerest figures I ebbier did see, I see gidden
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to be skeered. I tell you have for to keep
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  Speaker 1: mighty tight. I'd pawn him nevers. Totter day he give
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: me slip for the sun up an was gone to
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: hol oh be the blessed day. I had a big
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: stick ready cut for to give him deuced good beating
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: when he did come. But I see such a fool, Dad,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I hadn't a heart art at all. He looked so
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: very poorly. Eh what ah, yes, a pawn the whole.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I think you had better not be too severe with
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the poor fellow. Don't flog him, Jupiter. He can't very
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: well stand it. But can you form no idea of
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: what has occasioned this illness, or rather this change of conduct.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Has anything unpleasant happened since I saw you? No, Masa,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: day ain't been offin unpleasant since den twas for den
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I'm feared twas the bury day you was there. How
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: what do you mean why, Masa? I mean the bug there? Now?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: The what de bug? I'm very sartaine da Masa will
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: be bit somewhere bout the head by dat gulbug. And
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: what cuss have you Jupiter for such a supposition. Claws enough,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Masa and mouf too. I never did see sick a
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: deuced bug. He kick an he bite ebery ting what
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: come near him? Masa will catch him fuss, but had
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: for to let him go gin mighty quick. I tell
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you then was the time he must have got the bite.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I did ant like to look o de bug mouth myself. No,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: how so I would ant take hold ob him with
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: my finger. But I caught him with a piece o
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: bee paper that I found. I wrap him up into
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: paper and stuff piece o bee it in him mouth.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: That was the way. And you think then that your
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: master was really bitten by the beetle, and that the
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: bite made him sick. I do ant tink nofin' about it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I knows it. What make him dream by to ghoule
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: so much? If tain't cause he bit by de ghulbug?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I see heared bout dem gulbugs for this? But how
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: do you know he dreams about gold? How I know?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Why could he talk about it in his sleep? That's
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: how I knows? Well? Jump, Perhaps you are right, But
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: to what fortunate circumstance am I to attribute the honor
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of a visit from you to day? What the matter? Masa?
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Did you bring any message from mister Legrand? No, Masa,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I bring this here pissel, And here Jupiter handed me
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: a note which ran, thus, my dear, why have I
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: not seen you for so long a time? I hope
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you have not been so foolish as to take offense
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: at any little brusquerie of mine. But no, that is improbable.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Since I saw you, I have had great cause for anxiety.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I have something to tell you, yet scarcely know how
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: to tell it, or whether I should tell it at all.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I have not been quite well for some days past,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and poor old annoys me almost beyond endurance by his
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: well meant attentions. Would you believe it he had prepared
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a huge stick the other day with which to chastise
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: me for giving him the slip and spending the day
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: solas among the hills on the main land. I verily
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: believe that my looks alone save me a flogging. I
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: have made no addition to my cabinet since we met.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: If you can in any way make it convenient, come
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: over with Jupiter. Do come. I wish to see you
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to night upon business of importance. I assure you that
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: it is of the highest importance ever yours, William la Grand.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: There was something in the tone of this note which
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: gave me great uneasiness. Its whole style differed materially from
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: that of La Grand. What could he be dreaming of?
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: What new crotchet possessed his excitable brain? What business of
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the highest importance? Could he possibly have to transact Jupiter's
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: account of him boded no good? I dreaded, lest the
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: continued pressure of misfortune had at length fairly unsettled the
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: reason of my friend without a moment's hesitation. Therefore, I
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: prepared to accompany the Negro. Upon reaching the wharf, I
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: noticed a scythe and three spades, all apparently knew, lying
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: in the bottom of the boat in which we were
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to embark. What is the meaning of all this, jup,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I inquired him. Scythe masa and spade, very true? But
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: what are they doing here? Him deciphe and the spade?
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: What masa will sist upon my buying for him in
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the town and the devil's own lot of money I
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: had to give for m But what in the name
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of all that is mysterious is your masa will going
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: to do with scythes and spades. Dat's more Dan, I know,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and Debbil take me if I don't believe tis more
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Dan he know too. But it's all come Obi dou Bug.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: whose whole intellect seemed to be absorbed by de bug,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I now stepped into the boat and made sail with
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a fair and strong breeze. We soon ran into the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: little cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: walk of some two miles brought us to the hut.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: It was about three in the afternoon when we arrived.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Le Grand had been awaiting us in eager expectation. He
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: grasped my hand with a nervous on prossemann, which alarmed
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: me and strengthened the suspicions already entertained. His countenance was
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: pale even to ghastliness, and his deep set eyes glared
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: with unnatural luster. After some inquiries respecting his health, I
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: asked him, not knowing what better to say, if he
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: had yet obtained the scarabeus from Lieutenant g Oh. Yes,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: he replied, coloring violently. I got it from him the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: next morning. Nothing should tempt me to part with that scarabeus.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Do you know that Jupiter is quite right about it?
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: In what way? I asked? Asked, with a sad foreboding
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: at heart, in supposing it to be a bug of
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: real gold. He said this with an air of profound seriousness,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and I felt inexpressibly shocked. This bug is to make
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: my fortune, he continued, with a triumphant smile, to reinstate
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: me in my family possessions. Is it any wonder then
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: that I prize it? Since fortune has thought fit to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: bestow it upon me, I have only to use it properly,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and I shall arrive at the gold of which it
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: is the index. Jupiter, bring me that scarabeus? What the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: bug massa? I'd ratter not go fair, troubled dat bug?
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: You muse get him for your own self. Hereupon le
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Grand arose with a grave and stately air, and brought
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: me the beetle from a glass case in which it
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: was enclosed. It was a beautiful scarabeus, and at that time,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: unknown to naturalists, of course, a great prize in a
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: scientific point of view. There were two round black spots
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: near one extremity of the back, and a long one
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: with all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the insect was very remarkable, and taking all things into consideration,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I could hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: But what to make of Le Grand's concordance with that opinion?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I could not for the life of me. Tell I
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: sent for you, said he, in a grandiloquent tone. When
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I had completed my examination of the beadle, I sent
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: for you, that I might have your counsel and assistance
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: in furthering the views of Fate and of the bug.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: My dear legrand, I cried, interrupting him. You are certainly
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: unwell and had better use some little precautions. You shall
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: go to bed, and I will remain with you a
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: few days until you get over this. You are feverish,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and feel my pulse, said he. I felt it, and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to say the truth found not the slightest indication of fever.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: But you may be ill and yet have no fever.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Allow me this once to prescribe for you. In the
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: first place, go to bed. In the next you are mistaken,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: he interposed. I am as well as I can expect
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to be, under the excitement which I suffer. If you
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: really wish me well, you will relieve this excitement. And
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: how is this to be done? Very easily? Jupiter and
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: myself are going upon an expedition into the hills upon
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the main land, and in this expedition we shall need
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the aid of some person in whom we can confide.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: You are the only one we can trust. Whether we
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: succeed or fail, the excitement which you now perceive in
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: me will be equally allayed. I am anxious to oblige
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: you in any way, I replied, But do you mean
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to say that this infernal beadle has any connection with
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: your expedition into the hills? It has, then, Le Grand,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I can become a party to no such absurd proceeding.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I am sorry, very sorry, for we shall have to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: try it by ourselves. Try it by yourselves. The man
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: is surely mad. But stay how long do you propose
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: to be absent? Probably all night? We shall start immediately
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and be back at all events by sunrise. And will
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: you promise me upon your honor, that when this freak
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of yours is over and the bug business good God
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: settle to your satisfaction, you will then return home and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: follow my advice implicitly as that of your physician. Yes,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I promise, And now let us be off, for we
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: have no time to lose. With a heavy heart, I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: accompanied my friend. We started about four o'clock. Le Grand, Jupiter,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the dog and myself. Jupiter had with him the scythe
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and spades, the whole of which he insisted upon carrying
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: more through fear. It seemed to me of trusting either
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of the implements within reach of his master, than from
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: any excess of industry or complaisance. His demeanor was dogged
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: in the extreme, and that deuced bug were the sole
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: words which escaped his lips. During the journey. For my
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: own part, I had charge of a couple of dark lanterns,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: while the grand contented himself with the scarabeus, which he
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: carried attached to the end of a bit of whipcord,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: twirling it to and fro with the air of a
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: conjurer as he went. When I observed this last plain
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: evidence of my friend's aberration of mind, I could scarcely
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: refrain from tears. I thought it best, however, to humor
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: his fancy, at least for the present, or until I
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: could adopt some more energetic measures with a chance of success.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, I endeavored, but all in vain to
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: sound him in regard to the object of the expedition.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Having succeeded in inducing me to accompany him, he seemed
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: unwilling to hold conversation upon any topic of minor importance,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and to all my questions vouchsafed no other reply than
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: we shall see. We crossed the creek at ahead of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the island by means of a skiff, and, ascending the
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: high grounds on the shore of the main land, proceeded
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: in a northwesterly direction through a tract of country excessively
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: wild and desolate, where no trace of a human footstep
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: was to be seen. Le Grand led the way with decision,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: pausing only for an instant here and there to consult
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be certain landmarks of his own contrivance
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: upon a former occasion. In this manner we journeyed for
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: about two hours, and the sun was just setting when
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: we entered a region infinitely more dreary than any yet seen.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: It was a species of table land near the summit
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of an almost inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and interspersed with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: upon the soil, and in many cases were prevented from
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: precipitating themselves into the valleys below merely by the support
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of the trees against which they reclined. Deep ravines in
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: various directions gave an air of still sterner solemnity to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the scene. The natural platform to which we had clambed
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: was thickly overgrown with brambles, through which we soon discovered
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that it would have been impossible to force our way
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: but for the scythe and Jupiter, by direction of his master,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: of an enormously tall tulip tree, which stood with some
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: eight or ten oaks upon the level, and far surpassed
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: them all and all other trees which I had then
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and form,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: in the wide spread of its branches, and in the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: general majesty of its appearance. When we reached this tree,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Legrand turned to Jupiter and asked him if he thought
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: he could climb it. The old man seemed a little
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: staggered by the question, and for some moments made no reply.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: At length, he approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and examined it with minute attention. When he had completed
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: his scrutiny, he merely said, yes, massa jump climb any
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: tree he ebbi er see in his life. Then up
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: with you as soon as possible, for it will soon
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: be too dark to see what we are about. How
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: far mews go up? Masa inquired, Jupiter, get up the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: main trunk first, and then I will tell you which
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: way to go. And here stop, take this beetle with you,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: de bug, Masa will de ghoule, bug, cried the negro,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: drawing back in dismay. What from mew's tote to bug
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: way up the tree? D And if I do, if
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: you are afraid jump a great big negro like you
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to take hold of a harmless, little dead beetle. Why
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: you can carry it up by this string. But if
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you do not take it up with you in some way,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I shall be under the necessity of breaking your head
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: with this shovel. What the matter now, Masa said, Jump,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: evidently shamed into compliance. Always want for to raise fuss
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: with old niggerwas only funning anyhow, Me faed de bug?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: What I care for de bug? Here he took, cautiously
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: hold of the extreme end of the string, and, maintaining
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the insect as far from his person as circumstances would permit,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: prepared to ascend the tree in youth, the tulip tree
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: or liriodendron to lip for him, the most magnificent of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth and often rises
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: to a great height without lateral branches. But in its
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: riper age the bark becomes gnarled and uneven, while many
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: short limbs make their appearance on the stem. Thus the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: difficulty of ascension in the present case lay more in
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: semblance than in reality. Embracing the huge cylinder as closely
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: as possible with his arms and knees, seizing with his
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: hand some projections, and resting his naked toes upon others, Jupiter,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: after one or two narrow escapes from falling at length,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: wriggled himself into the first great fork, and seemed to
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: consider the whole business as virtually accomplished. The risk of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the achievement was in fact now over, although the climber
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: was some sixty or seventy feet from the ground. Which way,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: mus go, now, Moss or will? He asked? Keep up
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the largest branch, the one on this side, said le Grand.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: The Negro obeyed him promptly, and apparently with but little trouble,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: ascending higher and higher until no glimpse of his squat
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: figure could be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped it. Presently,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: his voice was heard in a sort of halloo. How
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: much fudder is got for go? How high up are
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you asked Le Grand Ebbier so Fur replied the negro
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: can see the sky through the top o beat the tree.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Look down the trunk and count the limbs below you
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: on this side. How many limbs have you passed? One? Two, tree, four? Five?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I done past five big limb massa pawn this side.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Then go one limb higher. In a few minutes, the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: voice was heard again, announcing that the seventh limb was attained. Now, jump,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: cried La Grand, evidently much excited. I want you to
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: work your way out upon that limb as far as
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you can. If you see anything strange, let me know
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: by this time what little doubt I might have entertained of.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: My poor friend's insanity was put finally at rest. I
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: had no alternative but to conclude him stricken with lunacy,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: and I became seriously anxious about getting him home. While
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I was pondering upon what was best to be done,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Jupiter's voice was again heard. Mose feared for to vent
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: upon this limb very far tis dead limb putty much
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: all the way? Did you say it was a dead limb? Jupiter,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: cried La Grand in a quavering voice. Yes, Massa, him
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: dead as de door, nail done up for Sartaine done
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: departed this here life. What in the name heaven shall
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I do? Asked le Grand, seemingly in the greatest distress, do?
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Said I glad of an opportunity to interpose a word?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Why come home and go to bed? Come now, that's
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: a fine fellow. It's getting late, and besides, you remember
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: your promise, Jupiter cried he, without heeding me in the least.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Do you hear me? Yes, Masa, will hear you? Ebber
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: so plain try the wood well then with your knife
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and see if you think it very rotten? Him rotten? Masa,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: sure enough, replied the negro in a few moments, but
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: not so very rotten as mot be maut venture out
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: leedleway pawned a limb by myself. That's true, by yourself?
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? Why? I mean the bug tis
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: very heavy. Bug s'pose I drop him down, fuss and
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: then the limb won't break with just await o be
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: one nigger, you infernal scoundrel, cried Legrand, apparently much relieved.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: What do you mean by telling me such nonsense as that,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: as sure as you drop that beadle, I'll break your neck?
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Look here, Jupiter, do you hear me? Yes, Masa needn't
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: hollow at poor nigger Dad's style. Well, now listen, if
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: you will venture out on the limb as far as
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you think safe and not let go the beetle, I'll
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: make you a present of a silver dollar as soon
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: as you get down, I gwine, Masa will deed, i is,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: replied the negro very promptly. Mow's out to the inen.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Now out to the end here, fairly screamed La Grand.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Do you say you are out to the end of
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: that limb? Soon be to de eend? Masa? Oh lord
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Joela Marcy, what is this here? Pond? A tree? Well,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: cried La Grand, highly delighted. What is it? Why? It
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: tain't often but a skull? Somebody'd been left him head
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: up the tree and the crow's done. Gobble ebrie, bit
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: o be to meat off a skull? You say, very well?
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: How is it fastened to the limb? What holds it on?
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Sure enough, Masa, muse, Look why this bury cuous circumstance?
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Pon my word? There's a great big nail in the skull.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: What fastens ob it on to the tree? Well, now, Jupiter,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: do exactly as I tell you. Do you hear? Yes? Massa,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: pay attention. Then find the left eye of the skull. Hum,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: who dat's good? Why dare ain't no I left at all?
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Curse your stupidity? Do you know your right hand from
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: your left? Yes? I knows dat knows all about that
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: tis my left hand what I chopped to wood wind
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: to be sure you are left handed and your left
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: eye is on the same side as your left hand.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Now I suppose you can find the left eye of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the skull, or the place where the left eye has been?
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Have you found it? Here was a long pause. At length,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the negro asked, is the left eye of the skull
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: upon the same side as the left hand of the skull? Two?
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Cause the skull ain't got not a bit o be
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: a hand at all. Never mind, I got the lef
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I now here to lef eye? What mews do with it?
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Let the beetle drop through it as far as the
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: string will reach, but be careful, and not let go
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: your hold of the string. All that done, Massa will
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: mighty easy, ting for to put the bug for de
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: hole look out for him there below. During this colloquy,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: no portion of Jupiter's person could be seen, but the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: beetle which he had suffered to descend, was now visible
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: at the end of the string, and glistened like a
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: globe of burnished gold in the last rays of the
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the eminence
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: upon which we stood. The Scarabaeus hung quite clear of
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: any branches, and if allowed to fall, would have fallen
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: at our feet. Le Grand immediately took the scythe and
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: cleared with it a circular space three or four yards
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: in diameter just beneath the insect, and, having accomplished this,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come down
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: from the tree, driving a peg with great nicety into
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the ground at the precise spot where the beetle fell.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: My friend now produced from his pocket a tape measure
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: fastening one end of this at that point of the
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: trunk of the tree, which was nearest the peg. He
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: unrolled it till it reached the peg, and thence farther
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: unrolled it in the direction already established by the two
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: points of the tree and the peg, for the distance
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: of fifty feet, Jupiter, clearing away the brambles with the
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: scythe at the spot thus attained, a second peg was driven,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: and about this as a center a rude circle about
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: four feet in diameter. Described Taking now a spade himself
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and giving one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: begged us to set about digging as quickly as possible.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: To speak the truth. I had no especial relish for
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: such amusement at any time, and at that particular moment
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: would most willingly have declined it, for the night was
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: coming on, and I felt much fatigued with the exercise
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: already taken. But I saw no mode of escape, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: was fearful of disturbing my poor friend's equanimity by a refusal.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Could I have depended, indeed, upon Jupiter's aid, I would
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: have had no hesitation in attempting to get the lunatic
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: home by force. But I was too well assured of
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the old Negro's disposition to hope that he would assist
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: me under any circumstances. In a personal contest with his master.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I made no doubt that the latter had been infected
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: with some of the innumerable Southern superstitions about money buried,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: and that his fantasy had received confirmation by the finding
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of the scarabeus, or perhaps by Jupiter's obstinacy in maintaining
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: it to be a bug of real gold. A mind
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: disposed to lunacy would readily be led away by such suggestions,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: especially if chiming in with favor preconceived ideas. And then
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I called to mind the poor fellow's speech about the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: beadle's being the index of his fortune. Upon the whole
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I was sadly vexed and puzzled, But at length I
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: concluded to make a virtue of necessity, to dig with
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: a good will, and thus the sooner to convince the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: visionary by ocular demonstration of the fallacy of the opinions
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: he entertained. The lanterns having been lit, we all fell
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to work with a zeal worthy a more rational cause,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: And as the glare fell upon our persons and implements,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I could not help thinking how picturesque group we composed,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: To any interloper who by chance might have stumbled upon
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: our whereabouts. We dug very steadily for two hours. Little
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: was said, and our chief embarrassment lay in the yelpings
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of the dog, who took exceeding interest in our proceedings.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: He at length became so obstreperous that we grew fearful
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: of his giving the alarm to some stragglers in the vicinity.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Or rather, this was the apprehension of Le Grand. For myself,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I should have rejoiced at any interruption which might have
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: enabled me to get the wander home. The noise was
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: at length very effectually silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: of the hole with a dogged air of deliberation, tied
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the brute's mouth up with one of his suspenders, and
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task. When
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: of five feet, and yet no signs of any treasure
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: became manifest. A general pause ensued, and I began to
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: hope that the farce was at an end. Legrand, however,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow thoughtfully and recommenced
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: we had excavated the entire circle of four feet diameter,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: And now we slightly enlarged the limit and went to
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the farther depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: gold seeker, whom I sincerely pitted at length, clambered from
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: the pit with the bitterest disappointment imprinted upon every feature,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: and proceeded slowly and reluctantly to put on his coat,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: which he had thrown off at the beginning of his labor.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, I made no remark. Jupiter, at a
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: signal from his master, began to gather up his tools.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: This done, and the dog having been unmuzzled, we turned
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: in profound silence towards home. We had taken perhaps a
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: dozen steps in this direction, when with a loud oath
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Legrand strode up to Jupiter and seized him by the collar.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: The astonished Negro opened his eyes and mouth to the
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: fullest extent. Let fall the spades and fell upon his knees.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: You scoundrel, said le Grand, hissing out the syllables from
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: between his clenched teeth, You infernal black villain speak. I
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: tell you answer me this instant without prevarication, Which which
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: is your left eye? Oh my golly, massa, will ain't
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: this here my left I for Sartaine, roared the terrified Jupiter,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: placing his hand upon his right organ of vision and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: holding it there with a desperate perdnacity, as if an
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: immediate dread of his master's attempt at a gouch. I thought,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: so I knew it, Hurrah, vociferated le Grand, letting the
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: negro go and exec acuting a series of curvettes and caricoles,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: much to the astonishment of his valet, who, arising from
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: his knees, looked mutely from his master to myself, and
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: then from myself to his master. Come, we must go back,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: said the latter. The game's not up yet, and he
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: again led the way to the tulip tree. Jupiter said
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: he when we reached its foot. Come, here was the
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: skull nailed to the limb, with the face outwards, or
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: with the face to the limb. The face was out masa,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: so that the crows could get at the eyes good
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: without any trouble. Well, then was it this eye or
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: that through which you dropped the beetle? Here Legrand touched
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: each of Jupiter's eyes, twas this I masa, The lef eye,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: j I s as you tell me, and here it
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: was his right either. The negro indicated that will do
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: we must try it again. Hear my friend, about whose
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: madness I now saw or fancied that I saw certain
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: indications of method. Removed the peg which marked the spot
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: where the beetle fell, to a spot about three inches
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: to the westward of its former position, taking now the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: tape measure from the nearest point of the trunk to
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the peg as before, and continuing the extension in a
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: straight line to the distance of fifty feet, A spot
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: was indicated removed by several yards from the point at
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: which we had been digging around the new position. A
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: circle somewhat larger than in the former instance was now described,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and we again set to work with the spades. I
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: was dreadfully weary, but scarcely understanding what had occasioned the
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: change in my thoughts. I felt no longer any great
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: aversion from the labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably interested,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: nay even excited. Perhaps there was something amid all the
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: extravagant demeanor of Le Grand, some air of forethought or
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: of deliberation, which impressed me. I dug eagerly, and now
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and then caught myself actually looking with something that very
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: much resembled expectation for the fancied treasure, the vision of
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: which had demented my unfortunate companion. At a period when
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: such vagaries of thought most fully possessed me, and when
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: we were again interrupted by the violent howlings of the dog.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: His uneasiness in the first instance had been evidently but
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: the result of playfulness or caprice, but he now assumed
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter's again attempting to
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and, leaping into the hole,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: tore up the mold frantically with his claws. In a
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: few seconds he had uncovered a mass of human bones,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: forming two complete skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: and what appeared to be the dust of decayed woolen.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: One or two strokes of a spade of turned the
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: blade of a large Spanish knife, and as we dug farther,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: came to light. At sight of these, the joy of
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Jupiter could scarcely be restrained, but the countenance of his
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: master wore an air of extreme disappointment. He urged us, however,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: to continue our exertions, and the words were hardly uttered
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: when I stumbled and fell forward, having caught the toe
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: of my boot in a large ring of iron that
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: lay half buried in the loose earth. We now worked
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: more intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: an oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: and wonderful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing process,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: perhaps that of the bichloride of mercury. This box was
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: three feet and a half long, three feet broad, and
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: two and a half feet deep. It was firmly secured
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: by bands of wrought iron, riveted and forming a kind
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: of open trellis work over the whole. On each side
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: of the chest. Near the top were three rings of iron,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: six in all, by means of which a firm hold
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united endeavors
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: served only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: We at once saw the impossibility of removing so great
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: a weight. Luckily the sole fastenings of the lid consisted
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of two sliding bolts. These we drew back, trembling and
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: panting with anxiety. In an instant a treasure of incalculable
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: lanterns fell within the pit, there flashed upwards a glow
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: and a glare from a confused heap of gold and
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: of jewels that absolutely dazzled our eyes. I shall not
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: pretend to describe the feelings with which I gazed. Amazement was,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: of course predominant. Le Grande appeared exhausted with excitement, and
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: spoke very few words. Jupiter's countenance wore for some minutes
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: as deadly a pallor, as it is possible in nature
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: of things for any negro's visage to assume. He seemed
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: stupefied thunder stricken. Presently he fell upon his knees in
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: elbows in gold, let them there remain, as if enjoying
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the luxury of a bath. At length. With a deep sigh,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy. And this all
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: come O be the ghulbug, the putty gulbug, the poor
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: little gulbug. What I boozed in? Dat sabage? Kind o
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: b style? Ain't you shamed? O? Be yourself? Nigger? Answer
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: me dat? It became necessary at last that I should
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: arouse both Master and Valet to the expediency of removing
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: the treasure. It was growing late, and it behooved us
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: to make exertion that we might get everything housed before daylight.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: It was difficult to say what should be done, and
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: much time was spent in deliberation. So confused were the
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: ideas of all. We finally lightened the box by removing
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: two thirds of its contents, when we were enabled, with
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: some trouble, to raise it from the hole. The articles
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: taken out were deposited among the brambles, and the dog
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: left to guard them. With strict orders from Jupiter needer
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: upon any pretense to stir from the spot, nor to
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: open his mouth until our return. We then hurriedly made
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: for home, with the chest, reaching the hut in safety,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: but after excessive toil at one o'clock in the morning,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: worn out as we were, it was not in human
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: nature to do more immediately, we rested until two and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: had supper, starting for the hills immediately afterwards, armed with
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: three stout sacks, which by good luck, were upon the
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: premises a little beforefore. We arrived at the pit, divided
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: the remainder of the booty as equally as might be
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: among us, and, leaving the holes unfilled, again, set out
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: for the hut, at which for the second time we
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: deposited our golden burthens, just as the first faint streaks
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: of the dawn gleamed from over the tree tops in
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the east. We were now thoroughly broken down, but the
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: intense excitement of the time denied us were pos After
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: an unquiet slumber of some three or four hours duration,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination of
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: our treasure. The chest had been full to the brim,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and we spent the whole day and the greater part
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: of the next night in a scrutiny of its contents.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: There had been nothing like order or arrangement. Everything had
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: been heaped in promiscuously. Having assorted all with care, we
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: found ourselves possessed of even vaster wealth than we had
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: at first supposed. In coin, there was rather more than
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Estimating the value of
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the pieces as accurately as we could by the tables
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: of the period. There was not a particle of silver.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: All was gold, of antique date and of great variety, French,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Spanish and German money, with a few English guineas, and
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: some counters of which we had never seen specimens before.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: There were several very large and heavy coins, so worn
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: that we could make nothing of their dens descriptions. There
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: was no American money. The value of the jewels we
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: found more difficulty in estimating. There were diamonds, some of
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: them exceedingly large and fine, one hundred and ten in all,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: and not one of them small, eighteen rubies of remarkable brilliancy,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: three hundred and ten emeralds, all very beautiful, and twenty
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: one sapphires with an opal. These stones had all been
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: broken from their settings and thrown loose in the chest.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: The settings themselves, which we picked out from among the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: other gold, appeared to have been beaten up with hammers,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: as if to prevent identification. Besides all this, there was
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: a vast quantity of solid gold ornaments, nearly two hundred
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: massive finger and ear rings, rich chains. Thirty of these,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: if I remember, eighty three very large and heavy crucifixes,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: five gold censors of great value, a prodigious golden punch
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: bowl ornamented with richly chased vine leaves and Bacchanalian figures
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: with two sword handles, exquisitely emboldust, and many other smaller
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: articles which I cannot recollect. The weight of these valuables
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds averdepoise, and in this
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: estimate I have not included one hundred ninety seven superb
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: gold watches, three of the number being worth each five
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars if one. Many of them were very old,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: and as time keepers valueless, the works having suffered more
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: or less from corrosion. But all were richly jeweled, and
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: in cases of great worth. We estimated the entire contents
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: of the chest that night at a million and a
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: half of dollars, and upon the subsequent disposal of the
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: trinkets and jewels, a few being retained for our own use,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: it was found that we had greatly undervalued the treasure.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: When at length we had concluded our examination, and the
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: intense excitement of the time had in some measure, subsided Legrand,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: who saw that I was dying with impatience for a
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: solution of this most extraordinary riddle, entered into a full
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: detail of all the circumstances connected with it. You remember,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: said he the night when I handed you the rough
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: sketch I had made of the scarabeus. You recollect also
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: that I became quite vexed at you for insisting that
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: my drawing resembled a death's head. When you first made
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: this assertion, I thought you were jesting. But afterwards I
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: the insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: some little foundation. In fact, still, the sneer at my
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: graphic powers irritated me, for I am considered a good artist,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: and therefore when you handed me the scrap of parchment,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I was about to crumple it up and throw it
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: angrily into the fire. The scrap of paper, you mean,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: said I. No. It had much of the appearance of paper,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: and at first I supposed it to be such, But
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: at once to be a piece of very thin parchment.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: It was quite dirty. You remember well, as I was
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: fell upon the sketch at which you had been looking,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: And you may imagine my astonishment when I perceived, in
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: fact the figure of a death's head just where it
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: seemed to me I had made the drawing of the beetle.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: For a moment, I was too much amazed to think
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: with accuracy. I knew that my design was very different
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: in detail from this, although there was a certain similarity
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: in general outline. Presently, I took a candle, and, seating
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: scrutinize the parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: saw my own sketch upon the reverse, just as I
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: had made it. My first idea now was mere surprise
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: at the really remarkable similarity of outline, at the singular
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: coincidence involved in the fact that, unknown to me, there
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: should have been a skull upon the other side of
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: the parchment immediately beneath my figure of the scarabeus, and
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: that this skull, not only in outline but in size,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: should so closely resemble my drawing. I say, the singularity
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: of this coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time. This
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind struggles
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: to establish a connection a sequence of cause and effect,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: and being unable to do so, suffers a species of
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: temporary paralysis. But when I recovered from this stupor, there
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: dawned upon me gradually a conviction which startled me even
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: far more than the coincidence. I began distinctly positively to
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: remember that there had been no drawing upon the parchment
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: when I made my sketch of the scarabeus. I became
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: perfectly certain of this, for I recollected turning up first
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: one side and then the other in search of the
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: cleanest spot. Had the skull been then there, of course,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: I could not have failed to notice it. Here was
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: indeed a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: But even at that early moment, there seemed to glimmer
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: faintly within the most remote and secret chambers of my intellect,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: a glow wormlike conception of that truth which last night's
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: adventure brought to so magnificent a demonstration. I arose at once, and,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: putting the parchment securely away, dismissed all farther reflection until
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: I should be alone. When you had gone, and when
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Jupiter was fast asleep, I betook myself to a more
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: methodical investigation of the affair. In the first place, I
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: considered the manner in which the parchment had come into
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: my possession. The spot where we discovered the scarabeus was
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: on the coast of the main land, about a mile
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: eastward of the island, and but a short distance above
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: high water mark. Upon my taking hold of it, it
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: gave me a sharp bite, which caused me to let
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: it drop. Jupiter, with his accustomed caution before seizing the insect,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: which had flown towards him, looked about him for a
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: leaf or something of that nature by which to take
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: hold of it. It was at this moment that his
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: eyes and mine also fell upon the scrap of parchment,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: which I then supposed to be paper. It was lying
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: half buried in the sand. A corner sticking up near
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: the spot where we found it. I observed the remnants
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: of the hull of what appeared to have been a
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: ship's long boat. The wreck seemed to have been there
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: for a very great while, for the resemblance to boat
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: timbers could scarcely be traced well. Jupiter picked up the parchment,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: wrapped the beetle in it, and gave it to me.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Soon afterwards, we turned to go home, and on the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: way met Lieutenant g I showed him the insect, and
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: he begged me to let him take it to the fort.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: Upon my consenting, he thrust it forthwith into his waistcoat pocket,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: without the parchment in which it had been wrapped, and
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: which I had continued to hold in my hand during
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: his inspection. Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind and
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: thought it best to make sure of the prize at once.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: You know how enthusiastic he is on all subjects connected
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: with natural history. At the same time, without being conscious
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: of it, I must have deposited the parchment in my
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: own pocket. You remember that when I went to the
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: table for the purpose of making a sketch of the beetle,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: I found no paper where it was usually kept. I
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: looked in the drawer and found none there. I searched
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: my pockets, hoping to find an old letter, when my
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: hand fell upon the parchment. I thus detailed the precise
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: mode in which it came into my possession. For the
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: circumstances impressed me with peculiar force. No doubt you will
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: think me fanciful. But I had already established a kind
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: of connection. I had put together two links of a
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: great chain. There was a boat lying upon a sea coast,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: and not far from the boat was a parchment, not
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: a paper, with a skull depicted upon it. You will,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: of course ask where is the connection. I reply that
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: the skull or death's head, is the well known emblem
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: of the pirate. The flag of the Death's Head is
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: hoisted in all engagements. I have said that the scrap
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: was parchment and not paper. Parchment is durable, almost imperishable.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Matters of little moment are rarely consigned to parchment, since
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: for the mere ordinary purpose of drawing or writing, it
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This reflection
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: suggested some meaning, some relevancy in the Death's Head. I
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: did not fail to observe also the form of the parchment.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Although one of its corners had been by some accident destroyed,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: it could be seen that the original form was oblong.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: It was just such a slip indeed, as might have
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: been chosen for a memorandum, for a record of something
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: to be long remembered and carefully preserved. But I interposed.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: You say that the skull was not upon the parchment
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: when you made the drawing of the beetle. How then
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: do you trace any connection between the boat and the skull,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: since this latter, according to your own admission, must have
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: been designed God only knows how or by whom, at
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: some period subsequent to your sketching the Scarabaeus. Ah. Hereupon
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: turns the whole mystery. Although the secret at this point
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I had comparatively little difficulty in solving. My steps were
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: sure and could afford but a single result, I reasoned.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: For example, thus when I drew the Scarabeus, there was
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: no skull apparent upon the parchment. When I had completed
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: the drawing, I gave it to you and observed you
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: narrowly until you returned it. You therefore did not design
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: the skull, and no one else was present to do it.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: Then it was not done by human agency, And nevertheless
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: it was done. At this stage of my reflections, I
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: endeavored to remember, and did remember with entire distinctness, every
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: incident which occurred about the period in question. The weather
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: was chilly, o rare, and happy accident, and a fire
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: was blazing upon the hearth. I was heated with exercise
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: chair close to the chimney. Just as I placed the
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: parchment in your hand, and as you were in the
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: act of inspecting it, Wolf the Newfoundland entered and leaped
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: upon your shoulders. With your left hand, you caressed him
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and kept him off. While you're right holding the parchment
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: was permitted to fall listlessly between your knees and in
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: close proximity to the fire. At one moment I thought
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: the blaze had caught it and was about to caution you,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: But before I could speak, you had withdrawn it and
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: were engaged in its examination. When I considered all these particulars,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I doubted not for a moment that heat had been
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the agent in bringing to light upon the parchment the
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: skull which I saw designed upon it. You are well
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: of mind, by means of which it is possible to
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: write upon either paper or vellum, so that the character
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: shall become visible only when subjected to the action of fire.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Zaphyr digested in Aqua Regia and diluted with four times
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: its weight of water is sometimes employed. A green tint results.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: The regulus of cobalt dissolved in spirit of niter gives
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: a red These colors disappear at longer or shorter interval
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: after the material written upon cools, but again become apparent
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: upon the reapplication of heat. I now scrutinized the Death's
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: head with care its outer edges. The edges of the
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: drawing nearest the edge of the vellum were far more
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: distinct than the others. It was clear that the action
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: of the caloric had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: kindled a fire and subjected every portion of the parchment
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: to a glowing heat. At first, the only effect was
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: the strengthening of the faint lines in the skull. But
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: upon persevering in the experiment, there became visible at the
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: corner of the slip diagonally opposite to the spot in
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: which the Death's head was delineated, the figure of what
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I at first supposed to be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: satisfied me that it was intended for a kid. Ha huh,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: said I to be sure, I have no right to
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: laugh at you. A million and a half of money
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: is too serious a matter for mirth. But you are
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: not about to establish a third link in your chain.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: You will not find any especial connection between your pirates
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: and a goat. Pirates, you know, have nothing to do
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: with goats. They appertain to the farming interest. But I
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: have just said that the figure was not that of
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: a goat, well a kid. Then pretty much the same thing,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: pretty much, but not altogether, said le Grand. You may
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: have heard of one captain Kidd. I at once looked
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: upon the figure of the animal as a kind of
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature, because its position
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: upon the vellum suggested this idea. The deaths had at
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: the corner diagonally opposite, had in the same manner the
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: air of a stamp or seal. But I was sorely
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: put out by the absence of all else of the
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: body to my imagined instrument of the text. For my context,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: I presume you expected to find a letter between the
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: stamp and the signature, something of that kind. The fact
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: is I felt irresistible impressed with the presentiment of some
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: vast good fortune impending I can scarcely say why. Perhaps,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: after all, it was rather a desire than an actual belief.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: But do you know that Jupiter's silly words about the
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: bug being of solid gold had a remarkable effect upon
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: my fancy? And then the series of accidents and coincidences,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: these were so very extraordinary. Do you observe how mere
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: an accident it was? That these events should have occurred
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: upon the sole day of all the year in which
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: it has been or may be sufficiently cool for fire,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: And that without the fire, or without the intervention of
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: the dog at the precise moment in which he appeared,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: I should never have become aware of the death as head,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and so never the possessor of the treasure. But proceed
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: I am all impatience. Well you have heard, of course,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the many stories current, the thousand vague rumors afloat about
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: money buried somewhere upon the Atlantic coast by kid and
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: his associates. These rumors must have had some foundation in fact,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and that the rumors have existed so long and so
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: continuous could have resulted. It appeared to me only from
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: the circumstance of the buried treasure still remaining entombed. Had
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Kit concealed his plunder for a time, and afterwards reclaimed it.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: The rumors would scarcely have reached us in their present
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: unvarying form. You will observe that the stories told are
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: all about money seekers, not about money finders. Had the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: pirate recovered his money there, the affair would have dropped.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: It seemed to me that some accident, save the loss
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: of a memorandum indicating its locality, had deprived him of
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: the means of recovering it, and that this accident had
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: become known to his followers, who otherwise might never have
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: heard that treasure had been concealed at all, and who
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: busying themselves in vain because unguided attempts to regain it
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: had given first birth and then universal currency to the
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: reports which are now so common. Have you ever heard
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of any important treasure being unearthed along the coast? Never,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: But that Kid's accumulations were immense is well known. I
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: took it for granted, therefore, that the earth still held them,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: and you will scarcely be surprised when I tell you
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: that I felt a hope nearly amounting to certainty, that
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: the parchment so strangely found involved a lost record of
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: the place of deposit. But how did you proceed? I
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: held the vellum again to the fire after increasing the heat,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: but nothing appeared. I now thought it possible that the
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: coating of dirt might have something to do with the failure,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: so I carefully rinsed the parchment by pouring warm water
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: over it, And having done this, I placed it in
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: a tin pan with the skull downwards, and put the
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: pan upon a furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: the pan having become thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: to my inexpressible joy, found it spotted in several places
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: with what appeared to be figures arranged in lines. Again,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: I placed it in the pan and suffered it to
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: just as you see it now Here. Le Grand, having
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: reheated the parchment, submitted it to my inspection. The following
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: characters were rudely traced in a red tint between the
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: death's head and the goat. But said I, returning him
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: the slip, I am as much in the dark as
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: ever were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me. Upon
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: my solution of this enigma. I am quite sure that
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: I should be unable to earn them. And yet, said
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: la Grand, the solution is by no means so difficult
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: as you might be lead to imagine from the first
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: hasty inspection of the characters. These characters, as any one
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: might readily guess, form a cipher, that is to say,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: they convey a meaning. But then, from what is known
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: of kid, I could not suppose him capable of constructing
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: any of the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up my
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: mind at once that this was of a simple species, such, however,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: as would appear to the crude intellect of the sailor,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: absolutely insoluble without the key, And you really solved it readily.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Greater circumstances and a certain bias of mind have led
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: me to take interest in such riddles. And it may
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: of the kind which human ingenuity may not, by proper
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: application resolve. In fact, having once established connected and legible characters,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I scarcely gave a thought to the mere difficulty of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: developing their import in the present case. Indeed, in all
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: cases of secret writing, the first question regards the language
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: of the cipher. For the principles of solution so far,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: especially as the more simple ciphers are concerned, depend upon
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: and are varied by the genius of the particular idiom.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: In general, there is no alternative but experiment, directed by
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: probabilities of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: until the true one be attained. But with the cipher
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: now before us, all difficulty was removed by the signature.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: The pun upon the word kit is appreciable in no
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: other language than the English. But for this consideration I
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: should have begun my attempts with the Spanish and French,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: as the tongues in which a secret of this kind
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: would most naturally have been written by a pirate of
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the Spanish. Main as it was, I assumed the cryptograph
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: to be English. You observe there are no divisions between
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: the words. Had there been divisions, the task would have
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: been comparatively easy. In such case, I should have commenced
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: with a collation and analysis of the shorter words, and
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: had a word of a single letter occurred, as is
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: most likely, or I For example, I should have considered
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: the solution as assured, but there being no division, my
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: first step was to ascertain the predominant letters, as well
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: as the least frequent counting all, I constructed a table. Thus,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is E.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: Afterwards succession runs. Thus a O, I, D, H, N, R, S,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: t U, y, C, f, g, L, M, w, b k,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: p q x C E predominates so remarkably that an
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: individual sentence of any length is rarely seen in which
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: it is not the prevailing character. Here, then we leave
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: in the very beginning the groundwork for something more than
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: a mere guess. The general use which may be made
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: of the table is obvious, but in this particular cipher
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: we shall only very partially require its aid. As our
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: predominant character is eight, we will commence by assuming it
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: as the E of the natural alphabet. To verify the supposition,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: let us observe if the eight be seen often in couples,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: For E is doubled with great frequency in English, in
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: such words, for example as meet, fleet speed, sn, bin, agree,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: and C. In the present instance, we see it doubled
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: no less than five times, Although the cryptograph is brief.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: Let us assume eight. Then, as E. Now, of all
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: words in the language, the is most usual. Let us
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: c therefore, whether there are not repetitions of any three
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: characters in the same order of collocation, the last of
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: them being eight. If we discover repetitions of such letters
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: so arranged, they will most probably represent the word. Upon
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: inspection we find no less than seven such arrangements, the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: characters being forty eight. We may therefore assume that represents T,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: for represents H, and eight represents E, the last being
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: now well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: But having established a single word, we are enabled to
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: establish a vastly important point, that is to say, several
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: commencements and terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: to the last instance, but one in which the combination
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: forty eight occurs not far from the end of the cipher.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: We know that the immediately ensuing is the commencement of
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: a word, and of the six characters succeeding this we
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: these characters down thus by the letters we know them
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: to represent, leaving a space for the unknown T E.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: Th Here we are enabled at once to discard the
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: thh as forming no portion of the word commencing with
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: the first T. Since by experiment of the entire alphabet
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: for a letter adapted to the vacancy, we perceive that
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: no word can be formed of which this th can
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: be a part. We are thus narrowed into t ee, and,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: going through the alphabet if necessary, as before, we arrive
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: at the word tree as the sole possible reading. We
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: thus gain another letter are represented by with the words
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the tree in juxtaposition. Looking beyond these words for a
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: short distance, we again see the combination forty eight, and
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: employ it by way of termination to what immediately precedes.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: We have thus this arrangement the tree for thirty four
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: the or substituting the natural letters where known, it reads
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: thus the tree T H R three H the. Now,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: if in place of the unknown characters we leave blank
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: spaces or substitute dots, we read thus the tree T
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: H R H the. When the word through makes itself
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: evident at once. But this discovery gives us three new letters, O, U,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: and G, represented by and three. Looking now narrowly through
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: the cipher for combinations of known characters, we find not
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: very far from the beginning this arrangement eighty three eighty
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: eight or agree, which plainly is the conclusion of the
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: word degree, and gives us another letter D represented by
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: For letters beyond the word degree, we perceive the combination
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: forty six eighty eight, translating the known characters and representing
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: the unknown by dots as before we read thus T H, R, T,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word thirteen, and again
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: furnishing us with two new characters I and N represented
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: by six and star. Referring now to the beginning of
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: the cryptograph, we find the combination fifty three, translating as
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: before we obtain good, which assures us that the first
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: letter is A and that the first two words are
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: a good. It is now time that we arrange our key,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: as far as discovered, in a tabular form to avoid confusion.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: It will stand thus five represents A D eight E three,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: G four H, six, I, asterisk, N, O, R, t U.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: We have therefore no less than eleven of the most
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: important letters represented, and it will be un necessary to
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: proceed with the details of the solution. I have said
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: enough to convince you that ciphers of this nature are
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: It now only remains to give you the full translation
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: of the characters upon the parchment as unriddled. Here it
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: is a good glass in the bishop's hostel, in the
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: devil's seat, forty one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: by north main branch, seventh limb, east side shoot from
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: the left eye of the death as had a bee
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: But said I, the enigma seems still in as bad
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: a condition as ever, how is it possible to extort
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: a meaning from all this jargon about devil's seats, death's
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: heads and bishop's hotels? I confess, replied Legrand, that the
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: matter still wears a serious aspect when regarded with a
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: casual glance. My first endeavor was to divide the sentence
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: into the natural division intended by the cryptographist. You mean
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: to punctuate it something of that kind. But how was
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: it possible to effect this? I reflected that it had
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: been a point with the writer to run his words
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: together without division, so as to increase the difficulty of solution. Now,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: a not over acute man in pursuing such an object
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: would be nearly certain to overdo the matter. When, in
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: the course of his composition he arrived at a break
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: in his subject which would naturally require a pause or
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: a point, he would be exceedingly apt to run his
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: characters at this place more than usually close together. If
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: you will observe the ms in the present instance, you
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: will easily detect five such cases of unusual crowding. Acting
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: upon this hint, I made the division. Thus a good
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: glass in the Bishop's Hostel, in the Devil's Seat, forty
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: brandch seventh limb east side, shoot from the left eye
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: of the death as head, a bee line from the
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: tree through the shot fifty feet out. Even this division,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: said I leaves me still in the dark. It left
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: me also in the dark, replied Legrand, for a few days,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: during which I made diligent inquiry in the neighborhood of
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Sullivan's Island for any building which went by the name
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: of the Bishop's Hotel for, of course I dropped the
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: obsolete word hostile. Gaining no information on the subject. I
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: was on the point of extending my sphere of search
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: and proceeding in a more systematic manner, when one morning
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: it entered into my head quite suddenly that this bishop's
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: hostel might have some reference to an old family of
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: the name of Bissop, which time out of mind, had
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: held possession of an ancient manor house about four miles
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: to the northward of the island. I accordingly went over
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: to the plantation and reinstituted my inquiries among the older
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: negroes of the place. At length, one of the most
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: aged of the women said that she had heard of
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: such a place as Bissop's Castle, and thought that she
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: could guide me to it, but that it was not
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: a castle nor a tavern, but a high rock. I
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: offered to pay her well for her trouble, and after
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: some demur she consented to accompany me to the spot.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: We found it without much difficulty. When dismissing her, I
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: proceeded to examine the place. The castle consisted of an
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: irregular assemblage of cliffs and rocks, one of the latter
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: being quite remarkable for its height, as well as for
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: its insulated and artificial appearance. I clambered to its apex,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: and then felt much at a loss as to what
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: should be next done. While I was busied in reflection,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: my eyes fell upon a narrow ledge in the eastern
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: face of the rock, perhaps a yard below the summit
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: upon which I stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: and was not more than a foot wide, while a
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: niche and a cliff just above it gave it a
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: rude resemblance to one of the hollow backed chairs used
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: by our ancestors. I made no doubt that here was
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: the devil seat alluded to in the MS, and now
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: The good glass, I knew, could have reference to nothing
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: but a telescope, for the word glass is rarely employed
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: in any other sense by seamen. Now Here I at
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: once saw was a telescope to be used, and a
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: definite point of view, admitting no variation from which to
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: use it. Nor did I hesitate to believe that the
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: phrases forty one degrees and thirteen minutes and northeast and
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: by north were intended as directions for the leveling of
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: the glass. Greatly Excited by these discoveries, I hurried home,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: procured a telescope, and returned to the rock. I let
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: myself down to the ledge and found that it was
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: impossible to retain a seat upon it, except in one
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: particular position. This fact confirmed my preconceived idea. I proceeded
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: to use the glass. Of course, the forty one degrees
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: and thirteen minutes could allude to nothing but elevation above
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: the visible horizon, since the horizontal direction was clearly indicated
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: by the words northeast and by north. This latter direction
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: I at once established by means of a pocket compass.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: Then pointing the glass as nearly at an angle of
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: forty one degrees of elevation as I could do it
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: by guests, I moved it cautiously up or down until
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: my attention was arrested by a circular rift or opening
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: in the foliage of a large tree that overtopped its
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: fellows in the distance. In the center of this rift,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: I perceived a white spot, but could not at first
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: distinguish what it was. Adjusting the focus of the telescope,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: I again looked, and now made it out to be
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: a human skull. Upon this discovery, I was so sanguine
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: as to consider the enigma solved. For the fray's main
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: branch seventh limb east side could refer only to the
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: position of the skull upon the tree, while shoot from
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: the left eye of the death's head admitted also of
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: but one interpretation in regard to a search for buried treasure.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: I perceived that the design was to drop a bullet
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: from the left eye of the skull, and that a
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: bee line, or in other words, a straight line drawn
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: from the nearest point of the trunk through the shot
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: or the spot where the bullet fell, and thence extended
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: to a distance of fifty feet, would indicate a definite point,
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: and beneath this point I thought it at least possible
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: that a deposit of value lay concealed. All this, I said,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, still simple and explicit.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: When you left the Bishop's hotel, what then, why, having
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned homewards
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: the instant that I left the Devil's seat. However, the
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: circular rift vanished, nor could I get a glimpse of
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: it afterwards, turn as I would What seems to me
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: the chief ingenuity in this whole business is the fact,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: for repeated experiment has convinced me it is a fact
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: that the circular opening in question is visible from me
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: no other attainable point of view than that afforded by
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: the narrow ledge upon the face of the rock. In
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: this expedition to the bishop's hotel, I had been attended
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: by Jupiter, who had no doubt observed for some weeks
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: past the abstraction of my demeanor, and took a special
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: care not to leave me alone. But on the next day,
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: getting up very early, I contrived to give him the
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: slip and went into the hills in search of the tree.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: After much toil, I found it. When I came home
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: at night, my valet proposed to give me a flogging
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: with the rest of the adventure. I believe you are
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: as well acquainted as myself, I suppose, said I. You
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: missed the spot in the first attempt at digging through
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: Jupiter's stupidity in letting the bug fall through the right
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: instead of through the left eye of the skull. Precisely.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: This mistake made a difference of about two inches and
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: a half in the shot that is to say, in
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: the position of the peg nearest the tree, and had
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: the treasure been beneath the shot, the error would have
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: been of little moment. But the shot, together with the
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: nearest point of the tree, were merely two points for
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: the establishment of a line of direction. Of course, the error,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: however trivial in the beginning, increased as we proceeded with
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: the line, and by the time we had gone fifty
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: feet threw us quite off the scent. But from my
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: deep seated impressions that treasure was here, somewhere, actually buried,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: we might have had all our labor in vain. But
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: your grandiloquence and your conduct in swinging the beetle, how
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: excessively odd, I was sure you were mad. And why
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: did you insist upon letting fall the bug instead of
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: a bullet from the skull? Why, to be frank, I
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions touching my sanity,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: and so resolved to punish you quietly in my own
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: way by a little bit of sober mystification. For this
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: reason I swung the beetle, and for this reason I
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: let it fall it from the tree. An observation of
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: yours about its great weight suggested the latter idea. Yes,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: I perceive. And now there is only one point which
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: puzzles me. What are we to make of the skeletons
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: found in the hole? That is a question I am
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: no more able to answer than yourself. There seems, however,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: only one plausible way of accounting for them. And yet
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity, as my
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: suggestion would imply. It is clear that kid, if Kid
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: indeed secreted this treasure, which I doubt not, It is
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: clear that he must have had assistance in the labor.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: But this labor concluded, he may have thought it expedient
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: to remove all participants in his secret. Perhaps a couple
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: of blows with a mattock were sufficient while his coadjutors
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: were busy in the pit. Perhaps it required a dozen.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: Who shall tell