Soon I had the mortar out of the joints, and the brick loose enough to
prise it forward, by putting the edge of the hammer in the crack. I
lifted it clean out and put it in the bucket, to see later on, in case
of need, if there was a hollow for anything to be hidden in; but never
had occasion to look at it again, for there, behind the brick, was a
little hole in the wall, and in the hole what I sought. I had my fingers
in the wall too quick for words, and brought out a little parchment bag,
for all the world like those dried fish-eggs cast up on the beach that
children call shepherds' purses. Now, shepherds' purses are crisp, and
crackle to the touch, and sometimes I have known a pebble get inside one
and rattle like a pea in a drum; and this little bag that I pulled out
was dry too, and crackling, and had something of the size of a small
pebble that rattled in the inside of it. Only I knew well that this was
no pebble, and set to work to get it out. But though the little bag was
parched and dry, 'twas not so easily torn, and at last I struck off the
corner of it with the sharp edge of my hammer against the bucket. Then I
shook it carefully, and out into my hand there dropped a pure crystal as
big as a walnut. I had never in my life seen a diamond, either large or
small--yet even if I had not known that Blackbeard had buried a diamond,
and if we had not come hither of set purpose to find it, I should not
have doubted that what I had in my hand was a diamond, and this of
matchless size and brilliance.
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