"Did you say it was a _dead_ limb, Jupiter?" cried Legrand in a quivering voice.
"Yes, ma.s.sa; him dead as de door-nail; done up for sartain; done departed dis here life."
"What in the name of heaven shall I do?" asked Legrand, seemingly in the greatest distress.
"Do!" said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose a word, "why, come home and go to bed. Come, now, that"s a fine fellow! It"s getting late, and, besides, you remember your promise."
"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the least, "do you hear me?"
"Yes, Ma.s.sa Will, hear you ebber so plain."
"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and see if you think it is _very_ rotten."
"Him rotten, ma.s.sa, sure nuff," replied the negro in a few moments; "but not so berry rotten as mought be. Mought ventur out leetle way pon de limb by myself, dat"s true."
"By yourself? what do you mean?"
"Why, I mean de bug. "Tis _berry_ hebby bug. Spose I drop him down fuss, and den de limb won"t break wid just de weight ob one n.i.g.g.e.r."
"You infernal scoundrel!" cried Legrand, apparently much relieved; "what do you mean by telling me such nonsense as that? As sure as you drop that beetle I"ll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter, do you hear me?"
"Yes, ma.s.sa; needn"t hollo at poor n.i.g.g.e.r dat style."
"Well, now listen. If you will venture out on the limb as far as you think safe, and not let go the beetle, I"ll make you a present of a silver dollar as soon as you get down."
"I"m gwine, Ma.s.s Will--deed I is," replied the negro, very promptly--"mos out to the end now."
"_Out to the end!_" here fairly screamed Legrand, "do you say you are out to the end of that limb?"
"Soon be to de eend, ma.s.sa,--o-o-o-o-oh! Lor-gol-a-marcy! what _is_ dis here pon de tree?"
"Well!" cried Legrand, highly delighted, "what is it?"
"Why, taint noffin but a skull--somebody bin lef him head up de tree, and de crows done gobble ebery bit ob de meat off."
"A skull, you say!--very well!--how is it fastened to the limb?--what holds it on?"
"Sure nuff, ma.s.sa; mus look. Why, dis berry curous c.u.mstance, pon my word--dare"s a great big nail in de skull what fastens ob it on to de tree."
"Well, now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you--do you hear?"
"Yes, ma.s.sa."
"Pay attention, then!--find the left eye of the skull."
"Hum! hoo! dat"s good! why, dare aint no eye lef at all."
"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?"
"Yes, I nose dat--nose all bout dat--"tis my lef hand what I chops de wood wid."
"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left eye is on the same side as your left hand. Now, I suppose you can find the left eye of the skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you found it?"
Here was a long pause. At length the negro asked,--
"Is de lef eye ob de skull pon de same side as de lef hand ob de skull, too?--cause de skull aint got not a bit ob a hand at all--nebber mind! I got de lef eye now--here de lef eye! what mus do with it?"
"Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string will reach--but be careful and not let go your hold of the string."
"All dat done, Ma.s.s Will; mighty easy ting for to put de bug frue de hole--look out for him dare below!"
During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter"s person could be seen; but the beetle, which he had suffered to descend, was now visible at the end of the string, and glistened, like a globe of burnished gold, in the last rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the eminence upon which we stood. The _scarabaeus_ hung quite clear of any branches, and, if allowed to fall, would have fallen at our feet.
Legrand immediately took the scythe and cleared with it a circular s.p.a.ce, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the insect, and, having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come down from the tree.
Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground, at the precise spot where the beetle fell, my friend now produced from his pocket a tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the peg, and thence further unrolled it, in the direction already established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the distance of fifty feet--Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the scythe. At the spot thus attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter, described. Taking now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand begged us to set about digging as quickly as possible.
To speak the truth, I had no special relish for such amus.e.m.e.nt at any time, and, at that particular moment, would most willingly have declined it; for the night was coming on, and I felt much fatigued with the exercise already taken; but I saw no mode of escape, and was fearful of disturbing my poor friend"s equanimity by a refusal. Could I have depended, indeed, upon Jupiter"s aid, I would have had no hesitation in attempting to get the lunatic home by force; but I was too well a.s.sured of the old negro"s disposition to hope that he would a.s.sist me, under any circ.u.mstances, in a personal contest with his master. I made no doubt that the latter had been infected with some of the innumerable Southern superst.i.tions about money buried, and that his fantasy had received confirmation by the finding of the _scarabaeus_, or, perhaps, by Jupiter"s obstinacy in maintaining it to be "a bug of real gold." A mind disposed to lunacy would readily be led away by such suggestions--especially if chiming in with favorite preconceived ideas--and then I called to mind the poor fellow"s speech about the beetle"s being "the index of his fortune." Upon the whole, I was sadly vexed and puzzled, but at length, I concluded to make a virtue of necessity--to dig with a good will, and thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by ocular demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinions he entertained.
The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal worthy a more rational cause; and, as the glare fell upon our persons and implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a group we composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared to any interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled upon our whereabouts.
We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was said; and our chief embarra.s.sment lay in the yelpings of the dog, who took exceeding interest in our proceedings. He at length became so obstreperous that we grew fearful of his giving alarm to some stragglers in the vicinity; or, rather, this was the apprehension of Legrand; for myself, I should have rejoiced at any interruption which might have enabled me to get the wanderer home. The noise was at length very effectually silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with a dogged air of deliberation, tied the brute"s mouth up with one of his suspenders, and then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task.
When the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth of five feet, and yet no signs of any treasure became manifest. A general pause ensued, and I began to hope that the farce was at an end. Legrand, however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow thoughtfully and recommenced. We had excavated the entire circle of four feet diameter, and now we slightly enlarged the limit, and went to the further depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The gold-seeker, whom I sincerely pitied, at length clambered from the pit, with the bitterest disappointment imprinted upon every feature, and proceeded, slowly and reluctantly, to put on his coat, which he had thrown off at the beginning of his labor. In the meantime I made no remark. Jupiter, at a signal from his master, began to gather up his tools. This done, and the dog having been unmuzzled, we turned in profound silence toward home.
We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this direction, when, with a loud oath, Legrand strode up to Jupiter, and seized him by the collar.
The astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth to the fullest extent, let fall the spades, and fell upon his knees.
"You scoundrel," said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between his clinched teeth--"you infernal black villain!--speak, I tell you!--answer me this instant, without prevarication!--which--which is your left eye?"
"Oh, my golly, Ma.s.sa Will! aint dis here my lef eye for sartin?" roared the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his _right_ organ of vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity, as if in immediate dread of his master"s attempt at a gouge.
"I thought so!--I knew it! hurrah!" vociferated Legrand, letting the negro go and executing a series of curvets and caracoles, much to the astonishment of his valet, who, arising from his knees, looked mutely from his master to myself, and then from myself to his master.
"Come! we must go back," said the latter, "the game"s not up yet;" and he again led the way to the tulip-tree.
"Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, "come here; was the skull nailed to the limb with the face outward, or with the face to the limb?"
"De face was out, ma.s.sa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, widout any trouble."
"Well, then, was it this eye or that through which you dropped the beetle?"--here Legrand touched each of Jupiter"s eyes.
""Twas dis eye, ma.s.sa--de lef eye--jis as you tell me," and here it was his right eye that the negro indicated.
"That will do--we must try it again."
Here my friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, certain indications of method, removed the peg which marked the spot where the beetle fell, to a spot about three inches to the westward of its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure from the nearest point of the trunk to the peg, as before, and continuing the extension in a straight line to the distance of fifty feet, a spot was indicated, removed, by several yards, from the point at which we had been digging.
Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger than in the former instance, was now described, and we again set to work with the spades. I was dreadfully weary, but scarcely understanding what had occasioned the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great aversion from the labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably interested--nay, even excited. Perhaps there was something, amid all the extravagant demeanor of Legrand, some air of forethought, or of deliberation, which impressed me. I dug eagerly, and now and then caught myself actually looking, with something that very much resembled expectation, for the fancied treasure, the vision of which had demented my unfortunate companion. At a period when such vagaries of thought most fully possessed me, and when we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, we were again interrupted by the violent howlings of the dog. His uneasiness, in the first instance, had been, evidently, but the result of playfulness or caprice, but he now a.s.sumed a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter"s again attempting to muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and leaping into the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his claws. In a few seconds he had uncovered a ma.s.s of human bones, forming two complete skeletons, intermingled with several b.u.t.tons of metal, and what appeared to be the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of a spade upturned the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we dug further, three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came to light.