attle like a pea in a drum; and this little bag that I pulled out
was dry too, and crackling, and had something of the size of a small
pebble that rattled in the inside of it. Only I knew well that this was
no pebble, and set to work to get it out. But though the little bag was
parched and dry, 'twas not so easily torn, and at last I struck off the
corner of it with the sharp edge of my hammer against the bucket. Then I
shook it carefully, and out into my hand there dropped a pure crystal as
big as a walnut. I had never in my life seen a diamond, either large or
small--yet even if I had not known that Blackbeard had buried a diamond,
and if we had not come hither of set purpose to find it, I should not
have doubted that what I had in my hand was a diamond, and this of
matchless size and brilliance. It was cut into many facets, and though
there was little or no light in the well save my candle, there seemed to
be in this stone the light of a thousand fires that flashed out,
sparkling red and blue and green, as I turned it between my fingers. At
first I could think of nothing else, neither how it got there, nor how I
had come to find it, but only of it, the diamond, and that with such a
prize Elzevir and I could live happily ever afterwards, and that I should
be a rich man and able to go back to Moonfleet. So I crouched down in the
bottom of the bucket, being filled entirely with such thoughts, and
turned it over and over again, wondering continually more and more to see
the fiery light fly out of it. I was, as it were, dazed by its
brilliance, and by the possibilities of wealth that it contained, and
had, perhaps, a desire to keep it to myself as long as might be; so that
I thought nothing of the two who were waiting for me at the well-mouth,
till I was suddenly called back by the harsh voice of the turnkey, crying
as before--

'What are you doing? have you found nothing?'

'Yes,' I shouted back, 'I have found the treasure; you can pull me up.'
The words were scarcely out of my mouth before the bucket began to move,
and I went up a great deal faster than I had gone down. Yet in that short
journey other thoughts came to my mind, and I heard Grace's voice again,
sweet and grave, 'Have a care, have a care how you touch the treasure; it
was evilly come by, and will bring a curse with it.' At the same time I
remembered how I had been led to the discovery of this jewel--first, by
Mr. Glennie's stories, second, by my finding th