And although they drank freely, they drank for the most part in silence.

"How is this?" shouted captain Flint, "at last have we all lost our voices? Can no one favor us with a song, or toast or a yarn?"

Hardly had these words pa.s.sed the lips of the captain, when the piteous moan which had so startled the pirates, on the previous evening again saluted them, but in a more suppressed tone of voice.

The last faint murmurs of this moan had not yet died away, when a shout, or rather a yell like an Indian war whoop, rang through the cavern in a voice that made the very walls tremble, its thousand echoes rolling away like distant thunder.

The whole group sprang to their feet aghast.

The two woman followed by Black Bill, terror stricken, joined the group.

This at least might be said of h.e.l.lena and the negro. The latter clinging to the skirts of the white maiden for protection, as a mortal in the midst of demons might be supposed to seek the protection of an Angel.

Captain Flint, now laying his hand violently on Lightfoot, said, "What does all this mean? do you expect to frighten me by your juggling tricks, you infernal squaw?" At these words he gave her a push that sent her staggering to the floor.

In a moment he saw his mistake, and went to her a.s.sistance (but she had risen before he reached her,) and endeavored to conciliate her with kind words and presents.

He took a gold chain from his pocket, and threw it about her neck, and drew a gold ring from his own finger and placed it upon hers.

These attentions she received in moody silence.

All this was done by Flint, not from any feelings of remorse for the injustice he had done the woman, but from a knowledge of how much he was in her power and how dangerous her enmity might be to him.

Finding that she was not disposed to listen to him, he turned from her muttering to himself:

"She'll come round all right by and by," and then addressing his men said:

"Boys, we must look into this matter; there's something about this cave we don't understand yet. There may be another one over it, or under it. We must examine."

He did not repeat the explanation he had given before, feeling no doubt, that it would be of no use.

A careful examination of the walls of the cave were made by the whole party, but to no purpose. Nothing was discovered that could throw any light upon the mystery, and they were obliged to give it up.

And thus they were compelled to let the matter rest for the present.

When the morning came, the pirates all left with the exception of the captain, who remained, he said, for the purpose of making further investigations, but quite as much for the purpose of endeavoring to find out whether or not, Lightfoot had anything to do with the production of the strange noises. But here again, he was fated to disappointment. The Indian could not, or would not, give any satisfactory explanation.

The noises she contended were made by the braves of her nation who had gone to the spirit world, and who were angry because their sacred cavern had been profaned by the presence of the hated palefaces.

Had he consulted h.e.l.lena, or Black Bill, his investigations would probably have taken a different turn.

The figure of the Indian having been seen by both h.e.l.lena and the black, would have excited his curiosity if not his fears, and led him to look upon it as a more serious matter than he had heretofore supposed.

But he did not consult either of them, probably supposing them to be a couple of silly individuals whose opinions were not worth having.

If any doubt had remained in the minds of the men in regard to the supernatural character of the noises which had startled them in the cave, they existed no longer.

Even the Parson although generally ridiculing the idea of all sorts of ghosts and hobgoblins, admitted that there was something in this affair that staggered him, and he joined with the others in thinking that the sooner they shifted their quarters, the better.

"Don't you think that squaw had a hand in it?" asked one of the men: "didn't you notice how cool she took it all the while?"

"That's a fact," said the Parson; "it's strange I didn't think of that before. I shouldn't wonder if it wasn't after all, a plot contrived by her and some of her red-skinned brethren to frighten us out of the cave, and get hold of the plunder we've got stowed away there."

Some of the men now fell in with this opinion, and were for putting it to the proof by torturing Lightfoot until she confessed her guilt.

The majority of the men, however, adhered to the original opinion that the whole thing was supernatural, and that the more they meddled with it, the deeper they'd get themselves into trouble.

"My opinion is," said Old Ropes, "that there's treasure buried there, and the whole thing's under a charm, cave, mountain, and all."

"If there's treasure buried there," said the Parson, "I'm for having a share of it."

"The only way to get treasure that's under charm," said Old Ropes, "is to break the charm that binds it, by a stronger charm."

"It would take some blasting to get at treasure buried in that solid rock," said Jones Bradley.

"If we could only break the charm that holds the treasure, just as like as not that solid rock would all turn into quicksand," replied Old Ropes.

"Did you ever see the thing tried?" asked the Parson.

"No; but I've seen them as has," replied Old Ropes.

"And more than that," continued Old Ropes, "my belief is that Captain Flint is of the same opinion, though he didn't like to say so.

"I shouldn't wonder now, if he hadn't some charm he was tryin', and that was the reason why he stayed in the cave so much."

"I rather guess the charm that keeps the captain so much in the cave is a putty face," dryly remarked one of the men.

CHAPTER XII.

While these things had been going on at the cavern, and Captain Flint had been pretending to use his influence with the Indians for the recovery of h.e.l.lena, Carl Rosenthrall himself had not been idle in the meantime.

He had dealings with Indians of the various tribes along the river, and many from the Far North, and West, and he engaged them to make diligent search for his daughter among their people, offering tempting rewards to any who would restore her, or even tell him to a certainty, where she was to be found.

In order to induce Fire Cloud to restore her in case it should prove it was he who was holding her in captivity, he sent word to that chief, that if he would restore his child, he would not only not have him punished, but would load him with presents.

These offers, of course made through Captain Flint, who it was supposed by Rosenthrall, had more opportunities than any one else of communicating with the old chief.

How likely they would have been to reach the chief, even if he had been the real culprit, the reader can guess.

In fact he had done all in his power to impress the Indian that to put himself in the power of Rosenthrall, would be certain death to him.

Thus more than a month pa.s.sed without bringing to the distracted father any tidings of his missing child.

We may as well remark here, that Rosenthrall had lost his wife many years before, and that h.e.l.lena was his only child, so that in losing her he felt that he had lost everything.