University of Virginia Library

9. CHAPTER IX.

At the appointed hour, May repaired
to the spot a greed on in the garden, and
found her sturdy little guide already
there patiently awaiting her arrival.

`Ah, ha! Miss May,' said David, cautiously
peering about—`up to the chalk
after all! that's a brave one for a lady—
I guesses all the afternoon as how you'd
flummux when it come dark.'

`Not so easily frightened, David. Are
you ready?—lead on then.'

On this, they silently set forward across
the fields and soon reached the
woods. Before entering them, however,
the boy, proposing a halt, mounted several
tall stumps successively for obtaining
an observation, and having at last succeeded,
he returned to the side of his
companion and observed—

`I sees a little twinkle up there once
in a while—there! I sees it from here

now—here, look where I points—do you
see it now?'

`Ah, yes, I did catch it then.'

`Well, that's the place—about half a
mile off—I knows a good cow path to
the mountain—but when we gets there, I
knows but one way to the cave—nation
bad and steep too, Miss May, but I finds
the way for all the dark—and here, feel
the end of this cord—I brings it for you
to hang on to, so you don't get lost in the
bushes. And now, Miss May, if you
aint afeard, I leads you to the spot—I
guesses that Mister has come down among
the diggers by this time, for I
watches and sees them going afore I
comes for you—so now if the old man
isn't there we finds a clear run and no
snakes.'

`David,' said May, not knowing how
far the boy's hobgoblin fears might carry
him, in case they met any one, and
being aware how much depended on him
in the adventure, `you have very wrong

notions about this old man, who has been
seen about here—he is either some poor
crazy vagabond, or else a brother rogue
of Gow; but at all events nothing more
than a man.'

`O, I fears nothing for him; cause if
he be the old one, when he sees you,
Miss May, he clears out in a hurry.'

The boy now plunged into the woods,
followed by his daring companion, and
striking into the path, proceeded slowly
and cautiously on to the foot of the mountains
at some little distance from where
the money diggers were assembling for
their night operations.

It was the same night which we have
already described as proving so exciting
and fearful to these enthusiasts in searching
for the buried mammon, we having
found it most convenient, in describing
their operations, to go forward of the
events of the other part of our narrative.

The night was unusually dark, and the
thick mass of the full grown foliage of the

heavy overhanging forest completely shutting
out the faint suffusions of the skylight,
which was scarcely perceptible even
in the open field, and adding a still deeper
shade to the ordinary darkness, no
common or unaccustomed hand could
have suceeded in advancing in the woods
at all, much less in reaching any given
point at a distance; but shrewd David,
familiar with every peculiar tree, every
turn of the path, and every inequality of
the ground, and possessed of a vision uncommonly
acute, carrying a long stick in
his hand to apprise him of each interposing
obstacle, while his bare feet informing
him by the feel of the first step's deviation
from the slightly trod path, threaded
the difficult way with surprising accuracy,
finding but little trouble for himself,
and kindly endeavoring, by removing
every limb or bush from the way
and timely notifying her of every log or
other obstacle to be surmounted, to aid
his less practised companion in her more
embarrassed progress.

Sometimes the resolution of May for a
moment wavered, and heart almost misgave
her at the boldness of her own undertaking
and the difficulties of its accomplishment;
but a sense of her own
wrongs, as often occurring to rouse her
bosom to resistance, and the thoughts of
what must soon be her fate without a perseverance
in her plans, impelling her onward
to action, bore up her courage
through all, and tempered her usually
mild spirit with an energy adequate to the
trying emergency.

They at length arrived at the foot of
the here steeply ascending mountain.—
David now again came to a halt for the
purpose of ascertaining his bearings, and
finding the most feasible place for climbing
the ascent. After groping about
awhile, he returned, and, informing May
that he had succeeded in finding the place
where he intended to go up, he led her
to the spot.

`Now, Miss May,' he said in a low,

cautious tone, `now for the tougher! I
listens and just hears the diggers at their
work—not a great ways off from here
they are now—that mister, I guesses, has
come down afore this; but if he aint,
and we meets him, I hears him coming
time enough, and when I gives three
jerks of the cord, you must slink under
a bush or something, and lie still as a
mouse, and I does the same till he gets
by. So now lets pull for it.'

`Bless me!' said May, just being able
to discern the dark outline of the steep
which rose like the side of a house before
her. `Bless me, David, we havn't
got to climb up here?'

`Yes, no other way for it—but never
mind, we goes it—and I tells you what,
Miss May, you tie the end of the cord
round you, like I've done—there! now
let them white hands work for their living—I
seizes at the roots and bushes
along up, and if you pulls me back, you
must be stronger than that pesky old

bear that grappled hold of my trowsers
last summer, just as I springs and scrambles
up a sapling to get out of the way
of her.'

With this they commenced their laborious
and difficult task of climbing the
mountain.

Slowly clambering from tree to tree
and rock to rock, our sturdy and active
little mountaineer, followed by his scarcely
less agile and resolute companion, continued
to work his way several hundred
feet up the almost perpendicular ascent,
till they came to a narrow level, beyond
which an upright and wall-like ledge interposed
an insurmountable obstacle to
their proceeding any further in the direction
they had been pursuing.

`Ah! I remembers this cute place,'
whispered David, as they both dropped
down on a mossy rock, on reaching the
summit, through sheer exhaustion from
the severity of their struggles. `I remember
this—we are most there now—

only go along a piece on this level till we
comes to the end, and then when we
mounts another rock and just gets round
a point of a ledge, there's the cave—no
trouble but we finds it, cause see! there's
more light, now we've got above the tops
of the trees, down there below.'

Our adventurers again set forward
along the scanty shelf towards the north,
keeping as near to the ledgy barrier on
the left as possible, as on the right, and
often within a yard of their feet, yawned
the black and fearful chasm of the precipice,
here falling down perpendicularly
some hundred feet beneath them.—
They soon, however, and safely reached
the termination of their walk in this direction.
For at this place, while the
shelf along which, for nearly a hundred
yards, they had now passed, considerably
widened, a tall rock shot out boldly from
the ledge on the left, forming a rectangular
arena of several square rods of level
surface, in the corner of which stood

a small tree whose branches overtopped
the ledge above, here not more than ten
feet in height.

`There! Miss May,' said the little
guide, `when we gets up a top of this
we are within a few rods of the place
where the mister stays, as I now feels
sure, cause I finds the twigs and bushes
broke off along back there where he
brushes by in going and coming, and I
knows well enough nobody else comes
to this mortal place.'

`Yes, David, but how are we ever to
get up there?'

`Why I supposed all the time that he'd
a fixed up some contrivance to get up
and down, but I sees none. When Mr.
Ashley and I come down we gets up into
the top of that tree; but you can't
climb, can you Miss May?'

`I never tried it, David, I believe, or
at least not lately; but is there no other
way?'

`Stay a bit—let's see a little,' replied

the boy. So saying and passing along
the base of the ledge, he soon announced
that he saw something projecting over
the top of the rock which he thought to
be some kind of a ladder. And now
nimbly mounting the tree and jumping
on to the rock, he proceeded to let down
the contrivance he had discovered, which
proved to be a light ladder, composed of
two poles distended at the ends by split
sticks, with strong bark ropes confined at
proper intervals to the sides to serve in
lieu of rounds. Our heroine courageously
mounted, and soon stood at the side
of her companion on the top of the rock.
Here they found another level, terminating
at the distance of two or three rods
in another and still loftier ledge of rocks.
After pulling up and carefully adjusting
the ladder in its original position, David
proposed, as from finding the ladder at
the top, Gow might still be in the cave,
to leave May under a projecting cliff, and
go round the point of the ledge which
only intervened between them and the
cave, for the purpose of reconnoitering
the spot. Accordingly he noiselessly sunk
away, and after a short absence, he returned,
and creeping close up to May, he
put his mouth to her ear and whispered—

`Sure as guns, Miss May, they be there
yet!'

`They!' repeated the other with some
agitation, `they! who? are there two of
them?'

`Yes, the mister, and another oldish
man, who I almost thinks must be the old
man himself; though for certain he aint
got the same awful queer face on now
that he had when I gets a peep at him
one day in the edge of the woods.—
They've built out a sort of place with
stakes and bark right afore the cave, so
as to make it come all in one room; so
I creeps up behind, and gets a look at
'em through the holes.'

`Ah, ha!' mused May, `this old man
then wears a disguise—he is beyond all

doubt an associate of Gow. But what is
to be done now, David?'

`Why, I thinks we better creep round
where I did, so as to be on the back side,
cause I expects the mister, and may be
tother one, comes this way soon now, to
go down to the diggers; and if they takes
a light, they see us, but if we goes round
there, they won't go that way for anything,
I guesses; and if they do, we can
slink off into the bushes, for there's a
clear run that way. So we better get
round there and wait till they goes, or we
give it up.'

May at once falling in with this advice,
our adventurers proceeded with the utmost
silence and caution round the projecting
point, and immediately found
themselves directly in front of, and not
twenty yards from the entrance of the
cavern. Voices were now distinctly heard
within, while a portion of light escaped
through the narrow entrance which was
stopped by setting a broad piece of bark

upright on the inner side before it. With
a slight shudder May obeyed the motions
of her guide, and they passed on, keeping
as great a distance from the cave as the
still continued precipice on the right would
safely permit, and soon reached a spot
where the offset of the ledge forming the
cave seemed to terminate, leaving an
opening of only a gentle rise up the
mountain. Here, safe from discovery,
they sat down to watch the movements
of the inmates of the cave, the new addition,
or front of which, was still in
plain sight.

`See that little streak of light through
the side there, Miss May? Well there's
where I gets my peep. Suppose now
you creeps up and tries it, and I comes
after you gets still.'

`Can I do it without danger of being
heard?'

`Yes, if you feels every place where
you puts your foot down, to see that
there's no dry brush or leaves to make a
noise.'

Another moment and our heroine was
gliding silently to the spot—another, and
she was breathlessly seeing and hearing
all that was passing within. The two
worthies were seated on a rude bench
made of a cleft log, placed before a small
fire, built just without the entrance of the
natural cave, so as to afford the smoke a
chance to escape through the opening
left in the bark roof above.

`Let's see, today is Thursday,' observed
the elder, a man apparently about fifty,
the first to break silence after May's
arrival at her loop-hole. `Today is
Thursday—next Tuesday evening brings
your concern to a focus, hey?'

`Next Tuesday, my old boy, is the
day that gives me as smart a little jade of
a wife as ever handled broomstick—together
with all the appurtenances there-unto
belonging, as my old dad's parchment
used to run.'

`Ay, ay, the appurtenances after division,
remember!—As to wife she should

have been named last; she is but the incumbrance.'

`Why, as for that, Col., she is really
so smooth a piece, that I think I can
stick to, and be quite husbandlike for a
year or so; and by that time I intend to
have all said appurtenances in the shape
of cash in my pocket. After which I
shall probably be ready for a little high
life by way of adventures again.'

`Having duly and impartially divided—

`What a suspicious devil you are, Col.!
Yes, yes, I am honest and honor bright
in this business, depend on't.'

`Really!—you well know how I can
help myself, if you don't walk straight,
my conscientious lad.'

`Come, none of your threatening—I
can do as much even at that as you can,
I am thinking. But as to this affair, I
freely say you will be well entitled to
share the plunder, let it be as much as it
may; for you first started the project
and gave me the chance. But how,

Col., did you happen to find out that the
old man made such a will? You never
told me exactly I think.'

`Why, hearing that the old man was
confined, and all others there, who formerly
knew me, dead or removed, I ventured
to spend some months in town;
and remaining there till after the old fellow
popped off, when the subject of his
family and estate was a good deal talked
of, I happened one day to overhear a
lawyer who drew the will telling a friend
all the particulars. He said Frank had
written home a penitent letter informing
his father of his private marriage in the
days of his wild oats long before he went
abroad, and that though his wife died at
the birth of her first child, yet that child
probably was still living, having been left
with some family in the north part of
New Hampshire, and winding off by asking
the old man's forgiveness, and hoping
he would provide for his child, a
daughter, he was told. On which the

old man forgot all his temper—threw the
old will, cutting Frank off, into the fire
—made a new one, giving him all his
property except these legacies, in case
the girl was alive. I afterwards went to
the Register's office myself, and, under
some pretence or other, got a peep at
the will and found it as I had heard. It
was then, knowing Frank would come
home from France as soon as he
heard of his father's death to take possession
of his estate, I hunted you up
and put you on this scheme so as to have
all done before his return.'

`And all shall be done, my precious
old match-maker; but my very good
friends the money diggers are by this
time on the ground below, and doubtless
impatient for my coming—I must be off.
Let's see, how many of your salt and
water rusty dollars did we bury there?'

`Just thirty, I believe.'

`Five apiece, hey? Zounds! how
the fellows will jump at the sight of 'em,

if they are of domestic manufacture!—
that is, if my very worthy friend the devil,
here, don't frighten 'em out of their
senses.'

`Yes, but you had better have heard
to me, Gow, and put them off till the
night before or after you are married.—
The fools, I am afraid, will go and pass
some of their dollars; and then we stand
an even chance to get blown up before
you bring your affair to a point.'

`Blown up! how? We get five hundred
dollars of the real to night, and
as for what they dig up, we shall not pass
it, and who can know where it comes
from?'

`No, no, but they will some way or
other connect it with you; and if they
do suspect you, I tell you again, ten to
one it don't blow your marriage into
moonshine.'

`They won't pass it—our plan of secrecy
till they get fairly hold of the treasure,
will prevent that; at least till I secure

my treasure, and the next day, under
pretence of a short journey, I am off
with my wife, you see; and you the same
night as soon as you find me fairly buckled,
I suppose. But I must go—have
you your disguise ready—the phosphorus
for the eyes and mouth of your mask?
Well, then, come on pretty soon—get a
good position in the bushes near, and
when I sing out—`There's the money—
seize it,'—then you—but you will know
how to manage.'

With this Gow, lighting a small pocket
lantern, with which both he and his
associates seemed provided, left the cabin,
and May, who sat trembling with apprehension
lest he should come round
the corner and discover her, soon, to her
great relief, heard him let down the ladder
and descend. David, after Gow's
departure, came crawling to the side of
his companion, and now shared with her
the crevice in observing the movements
of the remaining inmate of the place.—

The old man, on being left alone, soon
sunk into a deep reverie, and sat so long
in his mute and motionless abstraction
that his silent and unsuspected observers
began to fear that he intended to remain,
or that he would fall asleep, and thus defeat
their purpose of searching the interior.
At last, however, rousing up and
shaking off his seeming lethargy, he arose,
went back into the cave, and brought out
the different articles of his disguise for
the part he was about to enact in the
farce below. He then, taking up and
fitting on a frightful looking mask, turned
round, protruding his long neck forward,
first on one side, then another, as if practising
attitudes and trying to hit on the
most hideous.

`Wheugh!—wheu—' went David, forcing
out his breath in a sort of half whistle,
and then suddenly checking himself,
and relapsing into silence.

The old man next took from a little
box and rubbed round the small outlets

for the eyes and mouth what appeared
to be a whitish substance, but which, as
the shade occasionally fell on the face,
shone like fire. Then taking off his coat,
rolling his shirt sleeves up to his shoulders
and baring his neck, he drew
some bright red ochre several times from
ear to ear, giving his throat the appearance
of having been cut across in a long
bloody gash. After which he put on an
old sleeveless shirt, apparently besmeared
in spots with gore, and then surmounted
this dress with a white horse hair wig,
rising stiff and bristly on the top of the
head, like a tuft of porcupine quills, and
flowing down in long snaky ringlets over
his neck and shoulders below, making a
whole as grotesque and hideous as well
could be imagined. Having thus completed
his equipment, he lit his lamp, and
carefully raking up the fire, departed to
be ready for the performance with which
the reader has already been made acquainted.

`O, lightning!' exclaimed David, as
soon as the receding footstep of the man
had died away on his ear, `the very dogskin
that I sees by the wood-side—I
knows him the minute he gits his queer
tother face on. Well, if I didn't think
all the time he must be the old one! But
now—wheugh! he's no more devil than
I be.'

`I fear he is, David, in wickedness.'

`O, he's as bad as the old one, maybe,
—but what thinks you he's going to do,
Miss May?'

`I have learned their whole plot. You
were right in your suspicions. These
deliberate villains are about to defraud
these men, whom they have duped with
the idea of finding a treasure, out of a
large sum of money, and are expecting
to get hold of it to night—I have also
heard some very strange things about myself,
I think it must be—which I may
sometime tell you. But now, David, let
us proceed to the business for which we

came—what I have been listening to had
nearly driven it from my mind. If you
will watch at the point of rocks yonder,
to give me notice, should either of them
return, I will go in myself, and see what
can be found.'

The boy readily complying, May now
unhesitatingly entered the place just left
by the unsuspecting foes of her happiness,
who were little dreaming that while with
such confidence of success, they were
weaving the meshes of their toils for others,
the least suspected of their intended
victims, a poor unfriended girl, had already
fathomed their villainous designs,
and was rapidly preparing a mine soon
and fatally to explode beneath their feet.
On entering the cabin, May kindled a
bright fire and proceeded to the search.
Going at once into the interior of the
rock, she came to a rude shelf on which
were placed some articles of provision,
among which was a part of a loaf of
bread of her own baking, while beneath

on the smooth stone floor, were ranged
a plate or two, a few knives and forks,
and the scanty utensils with which they
prepared their food. Pausing a moment
over these with womanly curiosity and
criticism, she passed on and soon came
across sundry tools, the use of which
she at first was at a loss to understand.
A few imperfectly formed dollars, however,
laying near and now catching her
eye, at once explained the mystery—they
were a die and other implements for
coining.

`Now,' said she exultingly, well aware
of the penalties of counterfeiting, `Now
at least, I have him in my power—but
that for a last resort.'

And she went on prying in vain into
every place and corner for the main object
of her search, till she had nearly
given up all hope of success. Turning
to take one look more, however, before
she went out the door, she espied a pocket
inkstand and the corner of some writing

paper protruding from a small opening
or crevice in the rock over the fire,
which was not observable from other
parts of the room. She flew to the spot,
and by the aid of the bench placed slantingly
against the rock, made shift to
reach and draw out the loose paper,
among the leaves of which was a crumpled
and soiled letter. Hastily descending
and holding it to the fire, she looked
at the superscription—run her eye quickly
over a few lines here and there—
glanced at the signature at the bottom,
and, with an ejaculated—`Thank Heaven!'
eagerly thrust the precious prize
into that female `receptaele of things
lost on earth,' the trusty bosom. Carefully
replacing every thing as she found
it, she hurriedly left the cave, and in
another moment had announced her success
and her discoveries to her companion,
and with him was on her way homeward.

Another half hour found our heroine

standing on the spot at the garden where
she started, safe returned from the exciting
and perilous adventures of the night,
and giving directions to her trusty little
friend to be there the next morning to
take a letter to the village to her betrothed,
to whom she could now pour out her
soul with confidence as undoubting as
the fresh lit flame of her love was unquenchable.

We will not attempt to analyze or describe
the tumultuous and mingled feelings
that agitated the bosom of May after
she found her head safely resting on
her pillow on that eventful night. Now
prayers of thankfulness at her timely discovery
of the plots of her enemies were
moving her lips—now tears of joy at the
possession of a prize bringing such happiness
to her heart were suffusing her
sleepless eyes, and now various and tantalizing
conjectures were racking her
mind as she deeply pondered on the
vague and partial intelligence she had

obtained concerning her own history,
hitherto a blank to her, but now connected,
she no longer doubted, with her present
misfortunes, and giving rise to the
motives for her tormentor's anxiety to
force her into marriage—till her busy
thoughts and variant emotions gradually
fading and sinking into chaos, became
mingled and lost in the blank oblivion of
the living death which `nature's great restorer,
balmy sleep,' brings to the disturbed
and weary.