or were it not the fear of him that keeps off
idle feet and prying eyes, we should have the gaugers in, and our store
ransacked twenty times.'

So he spoke, and it seemed there was a little halting at first, as of
men not liking to take Blackbeard's name in Blackbeard's place, or raise
the Devil by mocking at him. But then some of the bolder shouted
'Blackbeard', and so the more timid chimed in, and in a minute there
were a score of voices calling 'Blackbeard, Blackbeard', till the place
rang again.

Then Elzevir cried out angrily, 'Silence. Are you mad, or has the liquor
mastered you? Are you Revenue-men that you dare shout and roister? or
contrabandiers with the lugger in the offing, and your life in your hand.
You make noise enough to wake folk in Moonfleet from their beds.'

'Tut, man,' retorted Ratsey testily, 'and if they waked, they would but
pull the blankets tight about their ears, and say 'twas Blackbeard piping
his crew of lost Mohunes to help him dig for treasure.'

Yet for all that 'twas plain that Block ruled the roost, for there was
silence for a minute, and then one said, 'Ay, Master Elzevir is right;
let us away, the night is far spent, and we have nothing but the sweeps
to take the lugger out of sight by dawn.'

So the meeting broke up, and the torchlight grew dimmer, and died away
as it had come in a red flicker on the roof, and the footsteps sounded
fainter as they went up the passage, until the vault was left to the dead
men and me. Yet for a very long time--it seemed hours--after all had gone
I could hear a murmur of distant voices, and knew that some were talking
at the end of the passage, and perhaps considering how the landslip might
best be restored. So while I heard them thus conversing I dared not
descend from my perch, lest someone might turn back to the vault, though
I was glad enough to sit up, and ease my aching back and limbs. Yet in
the awful blackness of the place even the echo of these human voices
seemed a kindly and blessed thing, and a certain shrinking loneliness
fell on me when they ceased at last and all was silent. Then I resolved I
would be off at once, and get back to the moonlight bed that I had left
hours ago, having no stomach for more treasure-hunting, and being glad
indeed to be still left with the treasure of life.

Thus, sitting where I was, I lit my candle once more, and then clambered
across that great coffin which, for two hours or more, had been a
mid-wall of