This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...right to meddle, together with an undefined dread of some one pouncing on us, if we touched the goods, kept us honest for a space; and many an anxioui eye was turned, the while, to the superincumbent mass winch arched the cave we stood in, and spanned the gulf beyond. Reader, what would you have done? Is there any harm ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...right to meddle, together with an undefined dread of some one pouncing on us, if we touched the goods, kept us honest for a space; and many an anxioui eye was turned, the while, to the superincumbent mass winch arched the cave we stood in, and spanned the gulf beyond. Reader, what would you have done? Is there any harm in finding a lost treasure, and in using it, if the owners, and all who could partake of their original rights, are dead?--Certainly not. The thing is done every day; and there is not an estate in Britain that has not, in this way, at some time, been lost and found: no, nor a jewel, nor an ounce of gold and silver, that is not the result of some chance discovery; for nature, we know, was the first proprietor. So we may begin and help ourselves, may we not? We looked to Prout, whose eyes had been riveted on a chest before him. He gave a nod, leaped from the ground with a sudden impulse, and, striking his thighs with his hands, he said, 'Come on, we may be gentlemen now, if we like. What's the noise? only the echo again. O, give it a good call--let us all shout at once, and, if the owners are within hearing, let them speak now, or for ever after hold their peace!' Prout uttered a wild ' hurrah!' in which we all joined with a voice that had much of a yell in it at last, which was continued as long and as loudly as our utmost powers of lungs would permit, as if to postpone or drown the response we dreaded from the vaults beyond. Echo waited not until we had fairly done, but returned us our own with every variety of tone and cadence, ending in a strange whooping cachinnation that rang like the laugh of demons through the vault. It seemed, indeed, as if the spirits from beneath were roused; and I know that our young scalps bristled Up, our mouths s...
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