"Here it is—or what remains of it," said Abraham, drawing forth the pieces from his pocket; "you can all see it if you wish."
The pieces were handed round and examined with intense interest and curiosity.
"You call this a man's skull?" said the Doubter, looking incredulously at a piece which he held in his hand.
"I do, sir," said Abraham, sharply; "have you any objection to my calling it a man's skull, sir?"
"No, none at all; you may call it a dog's skull if you like. I'd call it Robinson Crusoe's skull if I owned it. For all I know to the contrary, it is his; but I'd like to have a certificate from himself to that effect before I'd place much confidence in my own opinion, if I thought so."
The biting satire of these remarks touched Abraham to the quick. Nothing in the world would have prevented him from springing upon the Doubter at that moment, and taking summary vengeance upon his person, but the sudden exit of Pearce, who, rising from his goatskin, hurriedly left the cabin. This produced a general murmur of disapprobation. It was the unanimous opinion that a course of conduct, resulting as this did—compelling a man, as it were, to leave his own castle for personal security, was very unbecoming; and that Abraham, being the chief, although perhaps unintentional cause of it, was in honor bound to go after him and bring him back.
I take pride in saying that my friend was not the kind of man to resist such an appeal as this. He immediately left the hut and went in search of Pearce. Meanwhile we took occasion to administer a well-merited rebuke to the Doubter; and to declare that if he again interrupted the harmony of the evening, we would leave him ashore when we started for the ship. His only reply to this was, that he hoped, if he should unfortunately die in a cave in consequence of our cruelty, that his head would make a better-looking skull than the one Abraham had found.
In about ten minutes Abraham and Pearce returned, both having a very strange expression upon their features. Pearce looked unnaturally serious about the mouth, but I fancied more knowing than usual about the eyes. In sitting down he dropped a dollar, which he hastily picked up and put in his pocket. As to my friend, I thought there was something confused and dejected in his look; but he immediately said with assumed spirits when he came in, "All right, gentlemen; all right. The whole thing is settled; let there be nothing more about it."
Some few questions, however, were asked concerning the skull, but all the satisfaction Abraham could give was, "You have the particulars, gentlemen; you must judge for yourselves." Pearce professed to know nothing about it.
Harmony and good-humor being again restored, there were numerous calls for some farther reminiscences of the island.