This I could see as it lay
before me, for I did not handle or lift it, but only peered into it, with
the candle, on all sides, busying myself the while with thoughts of the
man of whom it had once been part.
In returning to the vault, I had no very sure purpose in mind; only a
vague surmise that this finding of Blackbeard's coffin would somehow lead
to the finding of his treasure. But as I looked at the beard and
pondered, I began to see that if anything was to be done, it must be by
searching in the coffin itself, and the clearer this became to me, the
greater was my dislike to set about such a task. So I put off the evil
hour, by feigning to myself that it was necessary to make a careful
scrutiny of the beard, and thus wasted at least ten minutes. But at
length, seeing that the candle was burning low, and could certainly last
little more than half an hour, and considering that it must now be
getting near dawn, I buckled to the distasteful work of rummaging the
coffin. Nor had I any need to climb up on to the top shelf again, but
standing on the one beneath, found my head and arms well on a level with
the search. And beside that, the task was not so difficult as I had
thought; for in my fall I had broken off the head-end of the lid, and
brought away the whole of that side that faced the vault.
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