Page 60 - Collected_Works_of_Poe.pdf

limb, east side,' could refer only to the position of the skull upon the tree, while 'shoot from the left eye of the
death's head' admitted, also, of but one interpretation, in regard to a search for buried treasure. I perceived that
the design was to drop a bullet from the left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or, in other words, a straight
line, drawn from the nearest point of the trunk through 'the shot,' (or the spot where the bullet fell,) and thence
extended to a distance of fifty feet, would indicate a definite point - and beneath this point I thought it at least
possible that a deposit of value lay
concealed."

"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, still simple and explicit. When you left the
Bishop's Hotel, what then?"

"Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned homewards. The instant that I left 'the devil's
seat,' however, the circular rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of it afterwards, turn as I would. What
seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole business, is the fact (for repeated experiment has convinced me
it is a fact) that the circular opening in question is visible from no other attainable point of view than that
afforded by the narrow ledge upon the face of the rock.

"In this expedition to the 'Bishop's Hotel' I had been attended by Jupiter, who had, no doubt, observed, for
some weeks past, the abstraction of my demeanor, and took especial care not to leave me alone. But, on the
next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give him the slip, and went into the hills in search of the tree.
After much toil I found it. When I came home at night my valet proposed to give me a flogging. With the rest
of the adventure I believe you are as well acquainted as myself."

"I suppose," said I, "you missed the spot, in the first attempt at digging, through Jupiter's stupidity in letting
the bug fall through the right instead of through the left eye of the skull."

"Precisely. This mistake made a difference of about two inches and a half in the 'shot' - that is to say, in the
position of the peg nearest the tree; and had the treasure been beneath the 'shot,' the error would have been of
little moment; but 'the shot,' together with the nearest point of the tree, were merely two points for the
establishment of a line of direction; of course the error, however trivial in the beginning, increased as we
proceeded with the line, and by the time we had gone fifty feet, threw us quite off the scent. But for my
deep-seated impressions that treasure was here somewhere actually buried, we might have had all our labor in
vain."

"But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in swinging the beetle - how excessively odd! I was sure you
were mad. And why did you insist upon letting fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the skull?"

"Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions touching my sanity, and so resolved to
punish you quietly, in my own way, by a little bit of sober mystification. For this reason I swung the beetle,
and for this reason I let it fall it from the tree. An observation of yours about its great weight suggested the
latter idea."

"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles me. What are we to make of the skeletons
found in the hole?"

"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There seems, however, only one plausible way
of accounting for them - and yet it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would imply. It is
clear that Kidd - if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, which I doubt not - it is clear that he must have had
assistance in the labor. But this labor concluded, he may have thought it expedient to remove all participants
in his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows with a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors were busy in the
pit; perhaps it required a dozen - who shall tell?"