thinks of having a bit of a game with old
Sam, while I was waitin' for you two to join company and look for the
treasure together, as we agreed atween us when we first diskivered the
place."

"And you didn't intend to frighten us, Tom?" I asked him at this point;
"mind, really?"

"No, I'll take my davy I didn't--that is, not at first," replied he,
grinning in his usual way. "Arterwards, in course, I couldn't help it,
when you and our Chickopee friend here took the bait so finely."

"Ah! I'll pay you out, bo, for it," cried Hiram, interrupting Tom, as I
had done, "never you fear. I'll pay you out, my hearty, 'fore this time
to-morrow come-never--both me and Cholly will tew, I guess, sirree!"

"Threaten'd men live long," observed Tom with a dry chuckle. "Still,
that ain't got nothin' to do with this here yarn. I com'd up, as I were
sayin', a good half-hour afore you; and, to spin out the time, I goes
round to the cave by the way where we first lighted on it t'other day,
and gets inside by the hole through the broken old door where we entered
it afore our reaching this end."

"And then?" I asked, on Tom's pausing for a moment in his
narrative--"and then?"

"Why, then I saw poor Sam, with his back turned towards me, a-sittin'
down on that rock as we called `the ghost's pulpit,' and playin' his
blessed old banjo as sweetly as you please, without thinkin' that I or
any one else were within miles of him! So, seein' this were a good
chance for finding whether Master Sammy, as was thought a ghost hisself
aboard, liked ghosts as he didn't know of, I catches up a bit o'
sailcloth that was lying on the ground, which he'd taken up there to
sarve for his bed, and, I claps this over my head and shoulders, like a
picter my mother had in the parlour at home of `Samuel and the Witch of
Endor.' Then, I lights the port fire and gives a yell to rouse up the
darkey, and arter that--ho-ho! my hearties, you knows what happened.
Ho-ho! it was as good as a play!"

"Golly! Me taut yer one duppy, fo' suah, Massa Tom!" said Sam, after
another chorus of laughter from all of us all round. "Me taut yer was
de debble!"

"Not quite so bad as that, my hearty," mildly suggested Tom, grinning at
the compliment. "Still, I don't think I made such a bad ghost
altogether for a green hand!"

"Don't ye kinder think ye frit me, bo!" declaimed Hiram vehemently. "It
wer the sight o' thet durned nigger thaar, a-sottin' an playin' his
banjo--