ow, and could certainly last
little more than half an hour, and considering that it must now be
getting near dawn, I buckled to the distasteful work of rummaging the
coffin. Nor had I any need to climb up on to the top shelf again, but
standing on the one beneath, found my head and arms well on a level with
the search. And beside that, the task was not so difficult as I had
thought; for in my fall I had broken off the head-end of the lid, and
brought away the whole of that side that faced the vault. Now, any lad of
my age, and perhaps some men too, might well have been frightened to set
about such a matter as to search in a coffin; and if any had said, a few
hours before, that I should ever have courage to do this by night in the
Mohune vault, I would not have believed him. Yet here I was, and had
advanced along the path of terror so gradually, and as it were foot by
foot in the past night, that when I came to this final step I was not
near so scared as when I first felt my way into the vault. It was not the
first time either that I had looked on death; but had, indeed, always a
leaning to such sights and matters, and had seen corpses washed up from
the _Darius_ and other wrecks, and besides that had helped Ratsey to case
some poor bodies that had died in their beds.

The coffin was, as I have said, of great length, and the side being
removed, I could see the whole outline of the skeleton that lay in it. I
say the outline, for the form was wrapped in a woollen or flannel shroud,
so that the bones themselves were not visible. The man that lay in it was
little short of a giant, measuring, as I guessed, a full six and a half
feet, and the flannel having sunk in over the belly, the end of the
breast-bone, the hips, knees, and toes were very easy to be made out. The
head was swathed in linen bands that had been white, but were now stained
and discoloured with damp, but of this I shall not speak more, and
beneath the chin-cloth the beard had once escaped. The clutch which I had
made to save myself in falling had torn away this chin-band and let the
lower jaw drop on the breast; but little else was disturbed, and there
was Colonel John Mohune resting as he had been laid out a century ago. I
lifted that portion of the lid which had been left behind, and reached
over to see if there was anything hid on the other side of the body; but
had scarce let the light fall in the coffin when my heart gave a great
bound, and all fear left m