"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 convictions that treasure was here somewhere
actually buried, we might have had all our labor in vain."
"I presume the fancy of _the skull_--of letting fall a bullet through
the skull's eye--was suggested to Kidd by the piratical flag.
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