sh, an' the folks ez got in
time made their pile!"

"But you heard what he said of the spirit protecting the treasure," I
remarked, "Don't you think he's right about the curse hanging over it?
I believe it would be unlucky to touch it."

"B'y, thaar's allars a cuss tied on to gold an' greenbacks, sich ez we
used ter hev a little time back," said Hiram sententiously. "But, I
reckon, the harm don't lie in the durned stuff itself: it's in the way
some folks kinder handles it--thet's whaar the pizen is! Guess I ain't
afeard o' no cuss, once I comes across thet cave the Dutch mate wer
a-speakin' on!"

"And the ghost?"

"Oh, durn the sperrit, Cholly!" said he, with a laugh. "I ain't
afeard."

"Recollect though, Hiram," I remarked, in answer to this, "how
frightened we all have been on board by Sam, and the way you were in
only a couple of days ago, when you said you saw him again here."

He looked serious again in a moment.

"Guess I don't want ter run down thet air ghostess," said he
apologetically. "Fur I reckon a man can't go agen a thin' he sees right
afore his eyes."

"And how about the other one that Mr Steenbock spoke of?"

"Oh, thet's different, Cholly. A chap ye sees a-sottin' down an'
a-playin' a banjo aint like a coon thet's ben buried two or three
hundred year, an' thet no one hez seed, ez I knows on, fur Jan Steenbock
never sed ez how he seed it hisself. No, b'y, I guess I'll hev a hunt
fur thet thaar tree-sor ez he spoke on, ez soon ez ever I hev the
chance."

"Suppose we go this evening, when we strike off work?" said I--"that is,
Hiram, if you don't mind my coming with you?"

"Nary a bit, Cholly," he replied good-heartedly to this tentative
question of mine; "glad to hev ye along o' me, seeing as how we both hev
ben a-prospectin' the line o' country already."

"All right," I exclaimed joyfully. "We'll have a good hunt for the
cave. I wouldn't be surprised if we find it near the place where I saw
the doves, by the pool between the hills over there."

"Most like, b'y," said he, bustling about the galley and going on with
his culinary work; "but hyar comes the stooard. Don't ye tell him
nuthin' o' what we hev ben talkin' on, or I guess the coon 'll be
wantin' to jine company, an' I don't wants him, I doesn't. He's a
won'erful slimy sort o' cuss, an' since he's ben skeart by Sam Jedfoot's
ghostess he hez ben a durned sight too mealy-mouthed fur me!"

"I won't speak a word to him," said