"'Now, you canting, cowardly lubber, why the henckers didn't you hang out a light?' he bellowed in a hoarse voice.
"'I have been in the dark these hundred years,' replied the spirit, meekly.
"'Likely enough; seas and thunder! you were the faintest-hearted fellow in the Adventure.'
"'I suffered sorely at your hands since you captured the ship of Queda, of which I was captain, and made me a prisoner in yon galley.'
"'Bah!' thundered Kidd.
"'I have repented me of my sins in life,' said the spirit, mournfully.
"''Sblood and plunder!' shouted the other, with a diabolical laugh; 'I shot you through the head, as a canting Scotsman, on this night one hundred years ago, and buried you here—you know for what purpose.'
"'That my unquiet spirit might watch your buried treasure,' moaned the other.
"'Right,' chuckled the pirate; 'I shot you as I would have done my lord the Earl of Bellamont, though he was Governor of New England and Admiral of all the seas about it, for that long-snouted Dutch lubber, William of Orange, who sent him to lord it over the Yankees.'
"'I have waited and watched your treasure long, and now am anxious for the repose of the grave.'