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?”




FOUR BEASTS IN ONE—THE HOMO-CAMELEOPARD


Chacun a ses vertus. —_Crébillon’s Xerxes._

      Antiochus Epiphanes is very generally looked upon as the Gog of
      the prophet Ezekiel. This honor is, however, more properly
      attributable to Cambyses, the son of Cyrus. And, indeed, the
      character of the Syrian monarch does by no means stand in need of
      any adventitious embellishment. His accession to the throne, or
      rather his usurpation of the sovereignty, a hundred and
      seventy-one years before the coming of Christ; his attempt to
      plunder the temple of Diana at Ephesus; his implacable hostility
      to the Jews; his pollution of the Holy of Holies; and his
      miserable death at Taba, after a tumultuous reign of eleven
      years, are circumstances of a prominent kind, and therefore more
      generally noticed by the historians of his time than the impious,
      dastardly, cruel, silly, and whimsical achievements which make up
      the sum total of his private life and reputation. Let us suppose, gentle reader, that it is now the year of the
      world three thousand eight hundred and thirty, and let us, for a
      few minutes, imagine ourselves at that most grotesque habitation
      of man, the remarkable city of Antioch. To be sure there were, in
      Syria and other countries, sixteen cities of that appellation,
      besides the one to which I more particularly allude. But ours is
      that which went by the name of Antiochia Epidaphne, from its
      vicinity to the little village of Daphne, where stood a temple to
      that divinity. It was built (although about this matter there is
      some dispute) by Seleucus Nicanor, the first king of the country
      after Alexander the Great, in memory of his father Antiochus, and
      became immediately the residence of the Syrian monarchy. In the
      flourishing times of the Roman Empire, it was the ordinary
      station of the prefect of the eastern provinces; and many of the
      emperors of the queen city (among whom may be mentioned,
      especially, Verus and Valens) spent here the greater part of
      their time. But I perceive we have arrived at the city itself. Let us ascend this battlement, and throw our eyes upon the town
      and neighboring country. “What broad and rapid river is that which forces its way, with
      innumerable falls, through the mountainous wilderness, and
      finally through the wilderness of buildings?”

      That is the Orontes, and it is the only water in sight, with the
      exception of the Mediterranean, which stretches, like a broad
      mirror, about twelve miles off to the southward. Every one has
      seen the Mediterranean; but let me tell you, there are few who
      have had a peep at Antioch. By few, I mean, few who, like you and
      me, have had, at the same time, the advantages of a modern
      education.