ee one equal to that. Why, you could see the color o' every thing. I
'member I could see how the huckleberry-bushes on the rock was red as
blood when the moonlight shone through 'em; 'cause the leaves, you see,
had begun to turn.

"Goin' on our way we got to talkin' about the sperits.

"'I ain't afraid on 'em,' says Hokum. 'What harm can a sperit do me?'
says he. 'I don't care ef there's a dozen on 'em;' and he took a swig at
his bottle.

"'Oh! there ain't no sperits,' says Harry Wiggin. 'That 'are talk's all
nonsense;' and he took a swig at _his_ bottle.

"'Wal,' says Toddy, 'I don't know 'bout that 'are. Me and Ike Sanders
has seen the sperits in the Cap'n Brown house. We thought we'd jest have
a peek into the window one night; and there was a whole flock o' black
colts without no heads on come rushin' on us and knocked us flat.'

"'I expect you'd been at the tahvern,' said Hokum.

"'Wal, yes, we had; but them was sperits: we wa'n't drunk, now; we was
jest as sober as ever we was.'

"'Wal, they won't get away my money,' says Primus, for I put it safe
away in Dinah's teapot afore I come out;' and then he showed all his
ivories from ear to ear. 'I think all this 'are's sort o' foolishness,'
says Primus.

"'Wal,' says I, 'boys, I ain't a goin' to have no part or lot in this
'ere matter, but I'll jest lay it off to you how it's to be done. Ef
Kidd's money is under this rock, there's 'sperits' that watch it, and
you mustn't give 'em no advantage. There mustn't be a word spoke from
the time ye get sight o' the treasure till ye get it safe up on to firm
ground,' says I. 'Ef ye do, it'll vanish right out o' sight. I've talked
with them that has dug down to it and seen it; but they allers lost it,
'cause they'd call out and say suthin'; and the minute they spoke, away
it went.'

"Wal, so they marked off the ground; and Primus he begun to dig, and the
rest kind o' sot round. It was so still it was kind o' solemn. Ye see,
it was past twelve o'clock, and every critter in Oldtown was asleep;
and there was two whippoorwills on the great Cap'n Brown elm-trees, that
kep' a answerin' each other back and forward sort o' solitary like; and
then every once in a while there'd come a sort o' strange whisper up
among the elm-tree leaves, jest as if there was talkin' goin' on; and
every time Primus struck his spade into the ground it sounded sort
o' holler, jest as if he'd been a diggin' a grave. 'It's kind o'
melancholy,' says I,