there was the note of safety still
sounding, for the snoring never ceased, and the sleeper woke not, though
her waking then might have changed all my life. So I came safely to the
kitchen, and there put in my pocket one of the best winter candles and
the tinder-box, and as I crept out of the room heard suddenly how loud
the old clock was ticking, and looking up saw the bright brass band
marking half past ten on the dial.

Out in the street I kept in the shadow of the houses as far as I might,
though all was silent as the grave; indeed, I think that when the moon is
bright a great hush falls always upon Nature, as though she was taken up
in wondering at her own beauty. Everyone was fast asleep in Moonfleet and
there was no light in any window; only when I came opposite the Why Not?
I saw from the red glow behind the curtains that the bottom room was lit
up, so Elzevir was not yet gone to bed. It was strange, for the Why Not?
had been shut up early for many a long night past, and I crossed over
cautiously to see if I could make out what was going forward. But that
was not to be done, for the panes were thickly steamed over; and this
surprised me more as showing that there was a good company inside.
Moreover, as I stood and listened I could hear a mutter of deep voices
inside, not as of roisterers, but of sober men talking low.

Eagerness would not let me wait long, and I was off across the meadows
towards the church, though not without sad misgivings as soon as the last
house was left well behind me. At the churchyard wall my courage had
waned somewhat: it seemed a shameless thing to come to rifle Blackbeard's
treasure just in the very place and hour that Blackbeard loved; and as I
passed the turnstile I half-expected that a tall figure, hairy and
evil-eyed, would spring out from the shadow on the north side of the
church. But nothing stirred, and the frosty grass sounded crisp under my
feet as I made across the churchyard, stepping over the graves and
keeping always out of the shadows, towards the black clump of yew-trees
on the far side.

When I got round the yews, there was the tomb standing out white against
them, and at the foot of the tomb was the hole like a patch of black
velvet spread upon the ground, it was so dark. Then, for a moment, I
thought that Blackbeard might be lying in wait in the bottom of the hole,
and I stood uncertain whether to go on or back. I could catch the rustle
of the water on the beach--n