"Don't you think that squaw had a hand in it?" asked one of the men: "didn't you notice how cool she took it all the while?"
"That's a fact," said the Parson; "it's strange I didn't think of that before. I shouldn't wonder if it wasn't after all, a plot contrived by her and some of her red-skinned brethren to frighten us out of the cave, and get hold of the plunder we've got stowed away there."
Some of the men now fell in with this opinion, and were for putting it to the proof by torturing Lightfoot until she confessed her guilt.
The majority of the men, however, adhered to the original opinion that the whole thing was supernatural, and that the more they meddled with it, the deeper they'd get themselves into trouble.
"My opinion is," said Old Ropes, "that there's treasure buried there, and the whole thing's under a charm, cave, mountain, and all."
"If there's treasure buried there," said the Parson, "I'm for having a share of it."
"The only way to get treasure that's under charm," said Old Ropes, "is to break the charm that binds it, by a stronger charm."
"It would take some blasting to get at treasure buried in that solid rock," said Jones Bradley.
"If we could only break the charm that holds the treasure, just as like as not that solid rock would all turn into quicksand," replied Old Ropes.
"Did you ever see the thing tried?" asked the Parson.