In the Wrong Paradise, and Other Stories

ch conveyed the dear-bought slave, Moore was ex

expensive one?" I ventured to as

ps the cheapest nigger

impertinent, and I possessed my curiosity

the lawn and in the garden. Fall to at once, those of you that have axes, and let the rest take hoes and knives and make a clean sweep of the shrubs." The idea of wholesale destruction seemed not disagreeable to the slaves, who went at their work with eagerness, though it made my heart ache to see the fine old oaks beginning to fall and to watch the green garden becoming a desert. Moore first busied himself with directing the women, who, under

lay at a distance of about a furlong and a half on various sides of the house. The men had orders to fire on any advancing enemy, and then to fall back at onc

'Bob White,'" said Moore; "if they take you, cry once. If you get off, run st

o had been sleeping, coiled up like a black cat, in the smoking-room), and bade him take a bath and hot water into the room where Gumbo, the newly purchased black, had a

s stereotyped grin to

plashings, mingled with the inarticulate groans of the miserable Gumbo. Moore could not

clean no

n," said Moore, "and l

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out of pure philanthropy. The disappointment of baffled cruelty in Moore's brother would not alone account for the necessity of such defensive preparations as had just been made. Clearly Gumbo was not a mere fancy article, but a negro of real value, whose person it was desirable to obtain possession of at any risk or cost. The ghastly idea occurred to me (suggested, I fancy, by Moore's demand for a razor) that Gumbo, at some period of his career, must have swallowed a priceless diamond. This gem must still be concealed

said inter

an has, as I felt sure, t

parent method, had gone out of his mind. It seemed best to hu

een the m

gypt's

he negro is dumb, I don't see how yo

e crossly; "I said he had it. As to Egypt

es, and in the instant of silence which f

hat had been left open. From the negroes we learned that our assailants (Bill Hicock's band of border ruffians, "specially engaged for this occasion") had picketed their horses behind the dip of the hill

ke of the furthest pile, "we have come for your n

uld just be discerned creeping through the grass about four hundred yards out. The bullets rattled harmlessly against wooden walls and iron

k we are all busy here, another detachment will try to rush the place from the ba

end, in a room of one of the wings which commanded the back entrance. As many men, with plenty of ready-loaded rifles, were told off to a room in the opposite wing. Both parties were thus in a position to rake the entrance

had credited the enemy with more generalship than they possessed, when a perfect storm of fire broke out beneath us, from the rooms where Moore and his company were posted. Dangerous as it was to cease for a moment from watching the enemy, I stole across the roof, and, looking down between two of the cotton bags which filled the open spaces of the balustrades, I saw the narrow ground between the two wings simply strewn with dead or wounded men. The cross fire still poured from the windows, though here and there a marksman tried to pick off the fugitives. Rapidly did I cross the roof to my post. To my horror the skir

iers," said Moore; "and now I thi

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leep came with it. Then we passed an indolent day, and I presumed that adventures were over, and that on the subject of "the Secret of the Pyramid" Moore had recovered

ay the story is to b

Moore answered. "The night is cloudy, and

hed the broad boat which was dragged over by a chain when any one wanted to cross. At the "scow," as the ferry-boat was called, Peter joined u

; "but now I might lose myself in the wood, for this

hich an ounce of lead had been lodged in a portion of his frame, I had no fear

said Moore. "You'll help us t

moral courage," as people commonly say when they mean cowardice, which I did not possess. We stepped within a na

whisper, "is this quite sportsmanlike? You know you are after some treasure, real or imaginary, and, I pu

my own land," said Moore. "Th

d we might through this combination of the Valley of the Shadow with the Slough of Despond, and soon were on firmer ground again beneath Moore's own territory. Probably no other white men had ever crawled through the hidden passage and gained the further penetralia of the cave, which now again began to narrow. Finally we reached four tall pillars, of about ten feet in height, closely surrounded by t

ce, or he would never have been our companion

only at the front, and examined the floor with his lantern,

-bone and little bits of broken jugs," and the d

ed not to

e is something on the roo

own legs above the knee. Moore climbed on the improvised ladder, and was

his head was above the level of the roof. Then he uttered a cry, and, leapi

he said, "wh

h is the matt

id Moore, who was somewhat shaken, and

d by a considerable gymnastic effort to raise my head to the level

e was suffic

t full length, with the skulls still covered with long hair, and the f

taken for a roof was the floor of a room raised on pillars), I saw the form of a man. He wa

touch. This instinct wakened in me. For a moment I felt dazed, and then I continued to stare involuntarily at the watcher of t

ied, and leaped down t

'M?urs des Sauvages Américains'? We are in a burying-place of the Cherouines, and

ve to the Sachem's Mound, and I forgot for a moment how the fellows dispos

ly enough this tim

ulchre. Here we lifted and removed vast piles of deerskin bags, and of mats, filled as they were with "the dreadful dust

ts of the dead. With feverish haste we cleared away the débris, and at last lifted and brought to light a huge and massive disk of gold, divided into rays

he firstfruits

ckly crusted with precious stones, and were accompanied by many of the sacred emeralds and opals of old American religion. There were also some extraordinary manuscripts, if the term may be applied to picture writing on prepared deerskins that were now decay

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ht of the upper air. It was quickly enough bestowed in bags and baskets. Then, aided by three of Moore's stoutest hands, whom we found w