I was disappointed enough, but before
I left picked up the beard from the floor, though it sent a shiver
through me to touch it, and put it back in its place on the dead man's
breast. I restored also such pieces of the coffin as I could get at, but
could not make much of it; so left things as they were, trusting that
those who came there next would think the wood had fallen to pieces by
natural decay. But the locket I kept, and hung about my neck under my
shirt; both as being a curious thing in itself, and because I thought
that if the good words inside it were strong enough to keep off bad
spirits from Blackbeard, they would be also strong enough to keep
Blackbeard from me.
When this was done the candle had burnt so low, that I could no longer
hold it in my fingers, and was forced to stick it on a piece of the
broken wood, and so carry it before me. But, after all, I was not to
escape from Blackbeard's clutches so easily; for when I came to the end
of the passage, and was prepared to climb up into the churchyard, I found
that the hole was stopped, and that there was no exit.
I understood now how it was that I had heard talking so long after the
company had left the vault; for it was clear that Ratsey had been as
good as his word, and that the falling in of the ground had been
repaired before the contraband-men went home that night.
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