Of course I made the required promise.
“This was the way of it,” he continued.
DIGGING FOR KIDD’S MONEY.
“One night last week, I dreamed that a spirit with a bright light in its hand came to me, and told me to follow. I followed, and it led me to a place about a hundred yards from the river, where it set down the light, and told me to dig. There was nothing to dig with, but as I looked at the ground, I saw a pick and shovel. I went to work with them, and when I struck the first blow, the spirit went away. I dug and dug, but without getting tired. It seemed that after I had been digging two or three hours, I struck a chest. I could hear the pick hitting on it; and by and by the point of it went through the oak, and I could hear the money rattling. Just then I waked, and found it was daylight.
“Next night I dreamed the same thing again, and then I knew there was something in it. The second time I dreamed it, I tried hard to remember where the place was; and the next day I went up and down the banks of the river, in hopes of seeing it. But I couldn’t find it, and what to do I didn’t know. It was a revelation, sure, but the revelation wasn’t clear enough, and I knew that something else was coming. Night before last it came.”
He spoke the last sentence very solemnly, and as he did so, he moved his hand towards a box that stood near his arm-chair. I thought he was about to open it, and show me some of the wealth of the great pirate; but he only produced a fresh bottle of rum, and took another drink. Smacking his lips, he continued.
“Night before last it came. I was out by the swamp after dark. I had been looking for the place, and was just then going home, and thinking I would try it again next morning. I was walking along, thinking, and had my head down, when, all at once, I stumbled over something that made me look up again. And there, not twenty feet away, was the light—just such as the spirit carried in my dream, only it wasn’t so bright.”
I was about to say, “Will o’ the wisp;” but I knew that if I did so, I should put an end to the story, and so I kept silence.
GUIDED BY A SPIRIT.