mystification. For this reason I swung the beetle, and for this reason I let it fall it from the
tree. An observation of yours about its great weight suggested the latter idea."
"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles me. What are we to
make of the skeletons found in the hole?"
"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There seems, however,
only one plausible way of accounting for them --- and yet it is dreadful to believe in such
atrocity as my suggestion would imply. It is clear that Kidd --- if Kidd indeed secreted
this treasure, which I doubt not --- it is clear that he must have had assistance in the labor.
But this labor concluded, he may have thought it expedient to remove all participants in
his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows with a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors
were busy in the pit; perhaps it required a dozen --- who shall tell?"
