these eddies and hidden workings of Nature of which you speak; but,
saving your presence, I hold it a fond thing to make light of such
warnings as are given us. 'Tis always said, "When the Moons move, then
Moonfleet mourns"; and I have heard my father tell that the last time
they stirred was in Queen Anne's second year, when the great storm blew
men's homes about their heads. And as for frighting children, 'tis well
that heady boys should learn to stand in awe, and not pry into what does
not concern them--or they may come to harm.' He added the last words with
what I felt sure was a nod of warning to myself, though I did not then
understand what he meant. So he walked off in a huff with Elzevir, who
was waiting for him outside, and I went with Mr. Glennie and carried his
gown for him back to his lodging in the village.

Mr. Glennie was always very friendly, making much of me, and talking to
me as though I were his equal; which was due, I think, to there being no
one of his own knowledge in the neighbourhood, and so he had as lief talk
to an ignorant boy as to an ignorant man. After we had passed the
churchyard turnstile and were crossing the sludgy meadows, I asked him
again what he knew of Blackbeard and his lost treasure.

'My son,' he answered, 'all that I have been able to gather is, that this
Colonel John Mohune (foolishly called Blackbeard) was the first to impair
the family fortunes by his excesses, and even let the almshouses fall to
ruin, and turned the poor away. Unless report strangely belies him, he
was an evil man, and besides numberless lesser crimes, had on his hands
the blood of a faithful servant, whom he made away with because chance
had brought to the man's ears some guilty secret of the master. Then, at
the end of his life, being filled with fear and remorse (as must always
happen with evil livers at the last), he sent for Rector Kindersley of
Dorchester to confess him, though a Protestant, and wished to make amends