d suffer and be silent, one whose
hand I loved to press. Of a sudden, pity caught in my wind-pipe with a
sob; I could have wept aloud to remember and behold him; and standing
thus by his elbow, under the broad moon, I prayed fervently either that
he should be released, or I strengthened to persist in my affection.

"O God," said I, "this was the best man to me and to himself, and now I
shrink from him. He did no wrong, or not till he was broke with sorrows;
these are but his honourable wounds that we begin to shrink from. O
cover them up, O take him away, before we hate him!"

I was still so engaged in my own bosom, when a sound broke suddenly upon
the night. It was neither very loud nor very near; yet, bursting as it
did from so profound and so prolonged a silence, it startled the camp
like an alarm of trumpets. Ere I had taken breath, Sir William was
beside me, the main part of the voyagers clustered at his back, intently
giving ear. Methought, as I glanced at them across my shoulder, there
was a whiteness, other than moonlight, on their cheeks; and the rays of
the moon reflected with a sparkle on the eyes of some, and the shadows
lying black under the brows of others (according as they raised or bowed
the head to listen) gave to the group a strange air of animation and
anxiety. My lord was to the front, crouching a little forth, his hand
raised as for silence: a man turned to stone. And still the sounds
continued, breathlessly renewed with a precipitate rhythm.

Suddenly Mountain spoke in a loud, broken whisper, as of a man relieved.
"I have it now," he said; and, as we all turned to hear him, "the Indian
must have known the cache," he added. "That is he--he is digging out the
treasure."

"Why, to be sure!" exclaimed Sir William. "We were geese not to have
supposed so much."

"The only thing is," Mountain resumed, "the sound is very close to our
old camp. And, again, I do not see how he is there before us, unless the
man had wings!"

"Greed and fear are wings," remarked Sir William. "But this rogue has
given us an alert, and I have a notion to return the compliment.--What
say you, gentlemen, shall we have a moonlight hunt?"

It was so agreed; dispositions were made to surround Secundra at his
task; some of Sir William's Indians hastened in advance; and a strong
guard being left at our headquarters, we set forth along the uneven
bottom of the forest; frost crackling, ice sometimes loudly splitting
under foot;