Some said that
it was all a mockery, and that Blackbeard never had the jewel; others
that the jewel was in his hand when he died, but carried off by some that
stood by. But most thought, and handed down the tale, that being taken
suddenly, he died before he could reveal the safe place of the jewel; and
that in his last throes he struggled hard to speak as if he had some
secret to unburden.
All this I told Elzevir, and he listened close as though some of it was
new to him. When I was speaking of Blackbeard being at Carisbrooke, he
made a little quick move as though to speak, but did not, waiting till I
had finished the tale. Then he broke out with: 'John, the diamond is yet
at Carisbrooke. I wonder I had not thought of Carisbrooke before you
spoke; and there he can get fourscore feet, and twice and thrice
fourscore, if he list, and none to stop him. 'Tis Carisbrooke. I have
heard of that well from childhood, and once saw it when a boy. It is dug
in the Castle Keep, and goes down fifty fathoms or more into the bowels
of the chalk below. It is so deep no man can draw the buckets on a winch,
but they must have an ass inside a tread-wheel to hoist them up. Now,
why this Colonel John Mohune, whom we call Blackbeard, should have chosen
a well at all to hide his jewel in, I cannot say; but given he chose a
well, 'twas odds he would choose Carisbrooke.
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