Then George, though shaking somewhat in his voice, began to decipher that
which was upon the wrappers, and a strange and awesome story it was, and
bearing much upon our own concerns:--

"Now, when they discovered the spring among the trees that crown the
bank, there was much rejoicing; for we had come to have much need of
water. And some, being in fear of the ship (declaring, because of all our
misfortune and the strange disappearances of their messmates and the
brother of my lover, that she was haunted by a devil), declared their
intention of taking their gear up to the spring, and there making a camp.
This they conceived and carried out in the space of one afternoon; though
our Captain, a good and true man, begged of them, as they valued life, to
stay within the shelter of their living-place. Yet, as I have remarked,
they would none of them hark to his counseling, and, because the Mate
and the bo'sun were gone he had no means of compelling them to wisdom--"

At this point, George ceased to read, and began to rustle among the
wrappers, as though in search for the continuation of the story.

Presently he cried out that he could not find it, and dismay was
upon his face.

But the bo'sun told him to read on from such sheets as were left; for, as
he observed, we had no knowledge if more existed; and we were fain to
know further of that spring, which, from the story, appeared to be over
the bank near to the vessel.

George, being thus adjured, picked up the topmost sheet; for they were,
as I heard him explain to the bo'sun, all oddly numbered, and having but