"The hant I was telling you about."
"What did it look like? Now go on with your story, and I won't say a word till you get through. What did you see up there in the gulf that frightened you so badly?"
These words drove away Dan's anger, and called up all his old fears again; but he sat down and resumed his narrative.
It related to a few things which the reader ought to know in order to understand what happened afterward; but Dan told it in such a rambling way, and made so many impossible statements, which he insisted should be received as absolute facts, that Joe found it hard to follow him, and we will not attempt it.
His narrative, stripped of all the monstrous exaggerations that his excitement and terror led him to put into it, ran about in this way:
When Silas and Dan shouldered their guns that morning and set out to find the robbers' cave, and the treasure that they firmly believed was concealed in it, they told each other that no matter what happened they would not come back until they had accomplished their object. The former, as we know, was not as eager to brave the terrors of the gorge as he pretended to be, but Dan was thoroughly in earnest, and he built so many gorgeous air-castles, and talked in such glowing language about the fine things they could have for their own as soon as the money was found, that finally Silas became worked up to the highest pitch of excitement and impatience, and showed it by striding ahead at such a rate that Dan had to exert himself to keep pace with him.
"You needn't be in such a hurry, pap," said Dan, when he found that he was growing short of breath. "It'll keep till we get there, 'cause there ain't nobody else that knows about it, seeing that you got the first grab at the letter."
"I know it," was the ferryman's reply, "but I'm powerful oneasy to get a hold of that grip-sack that's got the false bottom into it. We don't care if they do put a bridge down there to our house and bust up the ferrying business, do we, Dannie? And anybody that wants that old scow for their own can have it, can't they?"
"I don't care what becomes of it, or where it goes to," said Dan, spitefully. "It ain't a going to bring me no more backaches, I bet you."
"Course not," assented Silas. "You'll be a gentleman directly, and then you can buy a nice boat, if you want it."