Upon Jupiter's again
attempting to muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and, leaping
into the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his claws. In a
few seconds he had uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two
complete skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal, and
what appeared to be the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of
a spade upturned the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we dug
farther, three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came to
light.
At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained,
but the countenance of his master wore an air of extreme
disappointment. He urged us, however, to continue our exertions, and
the words were hardly uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having
caught the toe of my boot in a large ring of iron that lay half buried
in the loose earth.
We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more
intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an
oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation, and
wonderful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing
process --perhaps that of the Bi-chloride of Mercury.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47