The Gold Bug, by Edgar Allen Poe - City University of New...

Chapter 1

The Gold Bug, by Edgar Allen Poe

1.1 A Challenge

Edgar Allen Poe wrote in December 1839 in Alexander’s Weekly Messenger, a magazine towhich he was a regular contributor, that he could solve any monoalphabetic cipher. In hisown words:

It would be by no means a labour lost to show how great a degree of rigid methodenters into enigma-guessing. This may sound oddly; but it is not more strangethan the well know fact that rules really exist, by means of which it is easy todecipher any species of hieroglyphical writing— that is to say writing where, inplace of alphabetical letters, any kind of marks are made use of at random. Forexample, in place of A put arbitrary character—in place of B, a *, etc., etc. Letan entire alphabet be made in this manner, and then let this alphabet be usedin any piece of writing. This writing can be read by means of a proper method.Let this be put to the test. Let any one address us a letter in this way, and wepledge ourselves to read it forthwith–however unusual or arbitrary may be thecharacters employed.

Among the many ciphertexts readers contributed (and Poe deciphered) was an excep-tional letter from one G. W. Kulp.

Ge Jeasgdxv,

Zij gl mw, laam, xzy zmlwhfzek ejlvdxwkwke tx lbr atgh lbmx aanu bai Vsmukkss pwnvlwk agh gnumk wdlnzweg jnbxvv oaeg enwbzwmgy mo mlw wnbx mw al pnfdcfpkh wzkexhssf xkivahul. Mk num vexdm wbxy sbc hvwyx Phwkgnamcuk?

1

2 CHAPTER 1. THE GOLD BUG, BY EDGAR ALLEN POE

Poe argued that the message was “...an imposition—that is to say, we fully proved it ajargon of random characters, having no meaning whatsoever.” Poe was wrong, and youhave the tools to decrypt what he could not.

Poe famously used monoalphabetic substitution as a story element in “The Gold Bug,”(1843) reproduced in full below. What do you think of Legrand’s cryptanalytic techniques,as described in the story? After reading the story, you may enjoy reading the short essay byArthur Paul Patterson at: www.watershedonline.ca/literature/Poe/goldbug/pogoldbug.html

1.1. A CHALLENGE 3

The Gold Bug

What ho! what ho! this fellow isdancing mad!He hath been bitten by the Taran-tula.All in the Wrong.

Many years ago, I contracted an intimacywith a Mr. William Legrand. He was of anancient Huguenot family, and had once beenwealthy; but a series of misfortunes had re-duced him to want. To avoid the mortifi-cation consequent upon his disasters, he leftNew Orleans, the city of his forefathers, andtook up his residence at Sullivan’s Island, nearCharleston, South Carolina.

This Island is a very singular one. It consistsof little else than the sea sand, and is aboutthree miles long. Its breadth at no point ex-ceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated fromthe main land by a scarcely perceptible creek,oozing its way through a wilderness of reedsand slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen.The vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant,or at least dwarfish. No trees of any magni-tude are to be seen. Near the western extrem-ity, where Fort Moultrie stands, and where aresome miserable frame buildings, tenanted, dur-ing summer, by the fugitives from Charlestondust and fever, may be found, indeed, thebristly palmetto; but the whole island, with theexception of this western point, and a line ofhard, white beach on the seacoast, is coveredwith a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle,so much prized by the horticulturists of Eng-land. The shrub here often attains the heightof fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almostimpenetrable coppice, burthening the air withits fragrance.

In the inmost recesses of this coppice, notfar from the eastern or more remote end ofthe island, Legrand had built himself a small

hut, which he occupied when I first, by mereaccident, made his acquaintance. This soonripened into friendship—for there was much inthe recluse to excite interest and esteem. Ifound him well educated, with unusual powersof mind, but infected with misanthropy, andsubject to perverse moods of alternate enthu-siasm and melancholy. He had with him manybooks, but rarely employed them. His chiefamusements were gunning and fishing, or saun-tering along the beach and through the myrtles,in quest of shells or entomological specimens;-his collection of the latter might have been en-vied by a Swammerdamm. In these excursionshe was usually accompanied by an old negro,called Jupiter, who had been manumitted be-fore the reverses of the family, but who could beinduced, neither by threats nor by promises, toabandon what he considered his right of atten-dance upon the footsteps of his young “MassaWill.” It is not improbable that the relatives ofLegrand, conceiving him to be somewhat un-settled in intellect, had contrived to instil thisobstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the su-pervision and guardianship of the wanderer.

The winters in the latitude of Sullivan’s Is-land are seldom very severe, and in the fallof the year it is a rare event indeed when afire is considered necessary. About the mid-dle of October, 18–, there occurred, however,a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sun-set I scrambled my way through the evergreensto the hut of my friend, whom I had not vis-ited for several weeks—my residence being, atthat time, in Charleston, a distance of nine mymiles from the Island, while the facilities of pas-sage and re-passage were very far behind thoseof the present day. Upon reaching the hut Irapped, as was my custom, and getting no re-ply, sought for the key where I knew it wassecreted, unlocked the door and went in. Afine fire was blazing upon the hearth. It was


a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one.I threw off an overcoat, took an arm-chair bythe crackling logs, and awaited patiently thearrival of my hosts.

Soon after dark they arrived, and gaveme a most cordial welcome. Jupiter, grinningfrom ear to ear, bustled about to prepare somemarsh-hens for supper. Legrand was in oneof his fits—how else shall I term them?—ofenthusiasm. He had found an unknown bi-valve, forming a new genus, and, more thanthis, he had hunted down and secured, withJupiter’s assistance, a scarabaeus which he be-lieved to be totally new, but in respect to whichhe wished to have my opinion on the morrow.

“And why not to-night?” I asked, rubbingmy hands over the blaze, and wishing the wholetribe of scarabaei at the devil.

“Ah, if I had only known you were here!”said Legrand, “but it’s so long since I saw you;and how could I foresee that you would payme a visit this very night of all others? As Iwas coming home I met Lieutenant G–, fromthe fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him the bug;so it will be impossible for you to see it untilmorning. Stay here to-night, and I will sendJup down for it at sunrise. It is the loveliestthing in creation!”

“What?—sunrise?”

“Nonsense! no!—the bug. It is of a bril-liant gold color—about the size of a largehickory-nut—with two jet black spots near oneextremity of the back, and another, somewhatlonger, at the other. The antennae are—”

“Dey aint no tin in him, Massa Will, I keepa tellin on you,” here interrupted Jupiter; “debug is a goole bug, solid, ebery bit of him,inside and all, sep him wing—neber feel half sohebby a bug in my life.”

“Well, suppose it is, Jup,” replied Legrand,somewhat more earnestly, it seemed to me,than the case demanded, “is that any reason

for your letting the birds burn? The color”—here he turned to me—“is really almost enoughto warrant Jupiter’s idea. You never saw amore brilliant metallic lustre than the scalesemit—but of this you cannot judge till tomor-row. In the mean time I can give you some ideaof the shape.” Saying this, he seated himself ata small table, on which were a pen and ink, butno paper. He looked for some in a drawer, butfound none.

“Never mind,” said he at length, “thiswill answer”; and he drew from his waistcoatpocket a scrap of what I took to be very dirtyfoolscap, and made upon it a rough drawingwith the pen. While he did this, I retained myseat by the fire, for I was still chilly. When thedesign was complete, he handed it to me with-out rising. As I received it, a loud growl washeard, succeeded by a scratching at the door.Jupiter opened it, and a large Newfoundland,belonging to Legrand, rushed in, leaped uponmy shoulders, and loaded me with caresses; forI had shown him much attention during pre-vious visits. When his gambols were over, Ilooked at the paper, and, to speak the truth,found myself not a little puzzled at what myfriend had depicted.

“Well!” I said, after contemplating it forsome minutes, “this is a strange scarabaeus,I must confess: new to me: never saw any-thing like it before—unless it was a skull, or adeath’s-head—which it more nearly resemblesthan anything else that has come under my ob-servation.”

“A death’s-head!” echoed Legrand —“Oh—yes—well, it has something of that ap-pearance upon paper, no doubt. The two upperblack spots look like eyes, eh? and the longerone at the bottom like a mouth—and then theshape of the whole is oval.”

“Perhaps so,” said I; “but, Legrand, I fearyou are no artist. I must wait until I see the

1.1. A CHALLENGE 5

beetle itself, if I am to form any idea of itspersonal appearance.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said he, a little net-tled, “I draw tolerably—should do it at least—have had good masters, and flatter myself thatI am not quite a blockhead.”

“But, my dear fellow, you are joking then,”said I, “this is a very passable skull—indeed,I may say that it is a very excellent skull, ac-cording to the vulgar notions about such speci-mens of physiology—and your scarabaeus mustbe the queerest scarabaeus in the world if it re-sembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrillingbit of superstition upon this hint. I presumeyou will call the bug scarabaeus caput hominis,or something of that kind—there are many ti-tles in the Natural Histories. But where are theantennae you spoke of?”

“The antennae!” said Legrand, whoseemed to be getting unaccountably warmupon the subject; “I am sure you must see theantennae. I made them as distinct as they arein the original insect, and I presume that is suf-ficient.”

“Well, well,” I said, “perhaps you have—still I don’t see them;” and I handed him thepaper without additional remark, not wishingto ruffle his temper; but I was much surprisedat the turn affairs had taken; his ill humor puz-zled me—and, as for the drawing of the beetle,there were positively no antennae visible, andthe whole did bear a very close resemblance tothe ordinary cuts of a death’s-head.

He received the paper very peevishly, andwas about to crumple it, apparently to throw itin the fire, when a casual glance at the designseemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In aninstant his face grew violently red –in anotheras excessively pale. For some minutes he con-tinued to scrutinize the drawing minutely wherehe sat. At length he arose, took a candle fromthe table, and proceeded to seat himself upon

a sea-chest in the farthest corner of the room.Here again he made an anxious examination ofthe paper; turning it in all directions. He saidnothing, however, and his conduct greatly as-tonished me; yet I thought it prudent not toexacerbate the growing moodiness of his tem-per by any comment. Presently he took fromhis coat pocket a wallet, placed the paper care-fully in it, and deposited both in a writing-desk,which he locked. He now grew more composedin his demeanor; but his original air of enthusi-asm had quite disappeared. Yet he seemed notso much sulky as abstracted. As the eveningwore away he became more and more absorbedin reverie, from which no sallies of mine couldarouse him. It had been my to pass the nightat the hut, as I had frequently done before,but, seeing my host in this mood, I deemed itproper to take leave. He did not press me toremain, but, as I departed, he shook my handwith even more than his usual cordiality.

It was about a month after this (and dur-ing the interval I had seen nothing of Legrand)when I received a visit, at Charleston, from hisman, Jupiter. I had never seen the good old ne-gro look so dispirited, and I feared that someserious disaster had befAllan my friend.

“Well, Jup,” said I, “what is the matternow?—how is your master?”

“Why, to speak de troof, massa, him notso berry well as mought be.”

“Not well! I am truly sorry to hear it. Whatdoes he complain of?”

“Dar! dat’s it!—him neber plain of notin—but him berry sick for all dat.”

“Very sick, Jupiter!—why didn’t you say soat once? Is he confined to bed?”

“No, dat he ain’t!—he ain’t find nowhar—dat’s just whar de shoe pinch—my mind is gotto be berry hebby bout poor Massa Will.”

“Jupiter, I should like to understand whatit is you are talking about. You say your master


is sick. Hasn’t he told you what ails him?”

“Why, massa, taint worf while for to gitmad bout de matter—Massa Will say noffinat all ain’t de matter wid him—but den whatmake him go about looking dis here way, widhe head down and he soldiers up, and as whiteas a gose? And den he keep a syphon all detime—”

“Keeps a what, Jupiter?”

“Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on deslate—de queerest figgurs I ebber did see. Isegittin to be skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keepmighty tight eye pon him noovers. Todder dayhe gib me slip fore de sun up and was gone dewhole ob de blessed day. I had a big stick readycut for to gib him d–d good beating when hedid come –but Ise sich a fool dat I hadn’t deheart arter all—he look so berry poorly.”

“Eh?—what?—ah yes!—upon the whole Ithink you had better not be too severe with thepoor fellow—don’t flog him, Jupiter—he can’tvery well stand it—but can you form no idea ofwhat has occasioned this illness, or rather thischange of conduct? Has anything unpleasanthappened since I saw you?”

“No, massa, dey ain’t bin noffin onpleasantsince den—’t was fore den I’m feared—’t wasde berry day you was dare.”

“How? what do you mean?”

“Why, massa, I mean de bug—dare now.”

“The what?”

“De bug—I’m berry sartain dat Massa Willbin bit somewhere bout de head by dat goole-bug.”

“And what cause have you, Jupiter, forsuch a supposition?”

“Claws enoff, massa, and mouff too. I nab-ber did see sich a d–d bug—he kick and he biteebery ting what cum near him. Massa Willcotch him fuss, but had for to let him go ginmighty quick, I tell you—den was de time hemust ha got de bite. I didn’t like de look ob de

bug mouff, myself, no how, so I wouldn’t takehold ob him wid my finger, but I cotch him wida piece ob paper dat I found. I rap him up inde paper and stuff piece ob it in he mouff—datwas de way.”

“And you think, then, that your master wasreally bitten by the beetle, and that the bitemade him sick?”

“I don’t tink noffin about it—I nose it.What make him dream bout de goole so much,if tain’t cause he bit by de goole-bug? Ise heerdbout dem goole-bugs fore dis.”

“But how do you know he dreams aboutgold?”

“How I know? why cause he talk about itin he sleep—dat’s how I nose.”

“Well, Jup, perhaps you are right; but towhat fortunate circumstance am I to attributethe honor of a visit from you to-day?”

“What de matter, massa?”“Did you bring any message from Mr.

Legrand?”“No, massa, I bring dis here pissel;” and

here Jupiter handed me a note which ran thus:

My DEAR—

Why have I not seen you for so longa time? I hope you have not beenso foolish as to take offence at anylittle brusquerie of mine; but no,that is improbable.

Since I saw you I have had greatcause for anxiety. I have somethingto tell you, yet scarcely know howto tell it, or whether I should tell itat all.

I have not been quite well for somedays past, and poor old Jup annoysme, almost beyond endurance, byhis well-meant attentions. Wouldyou believe it?—he had prepareda huge stick, the other day, with

1.1. A CHALLENGE 7

which to chastise me for giving himthe slip, and spending the day, so-lus, among the hills on the mainland. I verily believe that my illlooks alone saved me a flogging.

I have made no addition to my cab-inet since we met.

If you can, in any way, make it con-venient, come over with Jupiter.Do come. I wish to see youtonight, upon business of impor-tance. I assure you that it is ofthe highest importance.

Ever yours,

WILLIAM LEGRAND.

There was something in the tone of thisnote which gave me great uneasiness. Its wholestyle differed materially from that of Legrand.What could he be dreaming of? What newcrotchet possessed his excitable brain? What“business of the highest importance” could hepossibly have to transact? Jupiter’s account ofhim boded no good. I dreaded lest the contin-ued pressure of misfortune had, at length, fairlyunsettled the reason of my friend. Without amoment’s hesitation, therefore, I prepared toaccompany the negro.

Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scytheand three spades, all apparently new, lying inthe bottom of the boat in which we were toembark.

“What is the meaning of all this, Jup?” Iinquired.

“Him syfe, massa, and spade.”“Very true; but what are they doing here?”“Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will

sis pon my buying for him in de town, and dedebbil’s own lot of money I had to gib for em.”

But what, in the name of all that is mys-terious, is your ‘Massa Will’ going to do withscythes and spades?”

“Dat’s more dan I know, and debbil takeme if I don’t blieve ’tis more dan he know, too.But it’s all cum ob de bug.”

Finding that no satisfaction was to be ob-tained of Jupiter, whose whole intellect seemedto be absorbed by “de bug,” I now steppedinto the boat and made sail. With a fair andstrong breeze we soon ran into the little coveto the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walkof some two miles brought us to the hut. It wasabout three in the afternoon when we arrived.Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expec-tation. He grasped my hand with a nervousempressement which alarmed me and strength-ened the suspicions already entertained. Hiscountenance was pale even to ghastliness, andhis deep-set eyes glared with unnatural lustre.After some inquiries respecting his health, Iasked him, not knowing what better to say, ifhe had yet obtained the scarabaeus from Lieu-tenant G–.

“Oh, yes,” he replied, coloring violently, “Igot it from him the next morning. Nothingshould tempt me to part with that scarabaeus.Do you know that Jupiter is quite right aboutit?”

“In what way?” I asked, with a sad fore-boding at heart.

“In supposing it to be a bug of real gold.”He said this with an air of profound seriousness,and I felt inexpressibly shocked.

“This bug is to make my fortune,” he con-tinued, with a triumphant smile, “to reinstateme in my family possessions. Is it any won-der, then, that I prize it? Since Fortune hasthought fit to bestow it upon me, I have onlyto use it properly and I shall arrive at the goldof which it is the index. Jupiter, bring me thatscarabaeus!”

“What! de bug, massa? I’d rudder notgo fer trubble dat bug—you mus git him foryour own self.” Hereupon Legrand arose, with


a grave and stately air, and brought me thebeetle from a glass case in which it was en-closed. It was a beautiful scarabaeus, and, atthat time, unknown to naturalists—of course agreat prize in a scientific point of view. Therewere two round, black spots near one extremityof the back, and a long one near the other. Thescales were exceedingly hard and glossy, with allthe appearance of burnished gold. The weightof the insect was very remarkable, and, tak-ing all things into consideration, I could hardlyblame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it; butwhat to make of Legrand’s agreement with thatopinion, I could not, for the life of me, tell.

“I sent for you,” said he, in a grandiloquenttone, when I had completed my examination ofthe beetle, “I sent for you, that I might haveyour counsel and assistance in furthering theviews of Fate and of the bug”—

“My dear Legrand,” I cried, interruptinghim, “you are certainly unwell, and had bet-ter use some little precautions. You shall goto bed, and I will remain with you a few days,until you get over this. You are feverish and”—

“Feel my pulse,” said he.

I felt it, and, to say the truth, found notthe slightest indication of fever.

“But you may be ill and yet have no fever.Allow me this once to prescribe for you. In thefirst place, go to bed. In the next”—

“You are mistaken,” he interposed, “I amas well as I can expect to be under the excite-ment which I suffer. If you really wish me well,you will relieve this excitement.”

“And how is this to be done?”

“Very easily. Jupiter and myself are go-ing upon an expedition into the hills, upon themain land, and, in this expedition, we shallneed the aid of some person in whom we canconfide. You are the only one we can trust.Whether we succeed or fail, the excitementwhich you now perceive in me will be equally

allayed.”

“I am anxious to oblige you in any way,”I replied; “but do you mean to say that thisinfernal beetle has any connection with yourexpedition into the hills?”

“It has.”

“Then, Legrand, I can become a party tono such absurd proceeding.

“I am sorry—very sorry—for we shall haveto try it by ourselves.”

“Try it by yourselves! The man is surelymad!—but stay!—how long do you propose tobe absent?”

“Probably all night. We shall start imme-diately, and be back, at all events, by sunrise.”

“And will you promise me, upon yourhonor, that when this freak of yours is over, andthe bug business (good God!) settled to yoursatisfaction, you will then return home and fol-low my advice implicitly, as that of your physi-cian?”

“Yes; I promise; and now let us be off, forwe have no time to lose.”

With a heavy heart I accompanied myfriend. We started about four o’clock—Legrand, Jupiter, the dog, and myself. Jupiterhad with him the scythe and spades—thewhole of which he insisted upon carrying—more through fear, it seemed to me, of trust-ing either of the implements within reach ofhis master, than from any excess of industryor complaisance. His demeanor was dogged inthe extreme, and “dat d–d bug” were the solewords which escaped his lips during the journey.For my own part, I had charge of a couple ofdark lanterns, while Legrand contented himselfwith the scarabaeus, which he carried attachedto the end of a bit of whip-cord; twirling it toand fro, with the air of a conjuror, as he went.When I observed this last, plain evidence of myfriend’s aberration of mind, I could scarcely re-frain from tears. I thought it best, however, to

1.1. A CHALLENGE 9

humor his fancy, at least for the present, or un-til I could adopt some more energetic measureswith a chance of success. In the mean time Iendeavored, but all in vain, to sound him inregard to the object of the expedition. Havingsucceeded in inducing me to accompany him,he seemed unwilling to hold conversation uponany topic of minor importance, and to all myquestions vouchsafed no other reply than “weshall see!”

We crossed the creek at the head of theisland by means of a skiff, and, ascending thehigh grounds on the shore of the mainland, pro-ceeded in a northwesterly direction, through atract of country excessively wild and desolate,where no trace of a human footstep was tobe seen. Legrand led the way with decision;pausing only for an instant, here and there, toconsult what appeared to be certain landmarksof his own contrivance upon a former occasion.

In this manner we journeyed for about twohours, and the sun was just setting when weentered a region infinitely more dreary thanany yet seen. It was a species of table land,near the summit of an almost inaccessible hill,densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and in-terspersed with huge crags that appeared tolie loosely upon the soil, and in many caseswere prevented from precipitating themselvesinto the valleys below, merely by the supportof the trees against which they reclined. Deepravines, in various directions, gave an air of stillsterner solemnity to the scene.

The natural platform to which we hadclambered was thickly overgrown with bram-bles, through which we soon discovered that itwould have been impossible to force our waybut for the scythe; and Jupiter, by direction ofhis master, proceeded to clear for us a path tothe foot of an enormously tall tulip-tree, whichstood, with some eight or ten oaks, upon thelevel, and far surpassed them all, and all other

trees which I had then ever seen, in the beautyof its foliage and form, in the wide spread of itsbranches, and in the general majesty of its ap-pearance. When we reached this tree, Legrandturned to Jupiter, and asked him if he thoughthe could climb it. The old man seemed a littlestaggered by the question, and for some mo-ments made no reply. At length he approachedthe huge trunk, walked slowly around it, andexamined it with minute attention. When hehad completed his scrutiny, he merely said,

“Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebbersee in he life.”

“Then up with you as soon as possible, forit will soon be too dark to see what we areabout.”

“How far mus go up, massa?” inquiredJupiter.

“Get up the main trunk first, and then Iwill tell you which way to go—and here—stop!take this beetle with you.”

“De bug, Massa Will!—de goole bug!”cried the negro, drawing back in dismay—“what for mus tote de bug way up de tree?—d–n if I do!”

“If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negrolike you, to take hold of a harmless little deadbeetle, why you can carry it up by this string—but, if you do not take it up with you in someway, I shall be under the necessity of breakingyour head with this shovel.”

“What de matter now, massa?” said Jup,evidently shamed into compliance; “alwayswant for to raise fuss wid old nigger. Was onlyfunnin’ anyhow. Me feered de bug! what I keerfor de bug?” Here he took cautiously hold ofthe extreme end of the string, and, maintain-ing the insect as far from his person as circum-stances would permit, prepared to ascend thetree.

In youth, the tulip-tree, or LiriodendronTulipiferum, the most magnificent of Ameri-


can foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth,and often rises to a great height without lat-eral branches; but, in its riper age, the barkbecomes gnarled and uneven, while many shortlimbs make their appearance on the stem.Thus the difficulty of ascension, in the presentcase, lay more in semblance than in reality. Em-bracing the huge cylinder, as closely as possible,with his arms and knees, seizing with his handssome projections, and resting his naked toesupon others, Jupiter, after one or two narrowescapes from falling, at length wriggled himselfinto the first great fork, and seemed to considerthe whole business as virtually accomplished.The risk of the achievement was, in fact, nowover, although the climber was some sixty orseventy feet from the ground.

“Which way mus go now, Massa Will?” heasked.

Keep up the largest branch—the one onthis side,” said Legrand. The negro obeyedhim promptly, and apparently with but littletrouble; ascending higher and higher, until noglimpse of his squat figure could be obtainedthrough the dense foliage which enveloped it.Presently his voice was heard in a sort of halloo.

“How much fudder is got for go?”

“How high up are you?” asked Legrand.

“Ebber so fur,” replied the negro; “can seede sky fru de top ob de tree.”

“Never mind the sky, but attend to what Isay. Look down the trunk and count the limbsbelow you on this side. How many limbs haveyou passed?”

“One, two, tree, four, fibe—I done pass fibebig limb, massa, ’pon dis side.”

“Then go one limb higher.”

In a few minutes the voice was heard again,announcing that the seventh limb was attained.

“Now, Jup,” cried Legrand, evidently muchexcited, “I want you to work your way out uponthat limb as far as you can. If you see anything

strange, let me know.”

By this time what little doubt I might haveentertained of my poor friend’s insanity, wasput finally at rest. I had no alternative butto conclude him stricken with lunacy, and Ibecame seriously anxious about getting himhome. While I was pondering upon what wasbest to be done, Jupiter’s voice was againheard.

“Mos’ feerd for to ventur ’pon dis limbberry far—’tis dead limb putty much all deway.”

“Did you say it was a dead limb, Jupiter?”cried Legrand in a quavering voice.

“Yes, massa, him dead as de door-nail—done up for sartain—done departed dis herelife.”

“What in the name of heaven shall I do?”asked Legrand, seemingly in the greatest dis-tress.

“Do!” said I, glad of an opportunity to in-terpose a word, “why come home and go tobed. Come now!—that’s a fine fellow. It’sgetting late, and, besides, you remember yourpromise.”

“Jupiter,” cried he, without heeding me inthe least, “do you hear me?”

“Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain.”

“Try the wood well, then, with your knife,and see if you think it very rotten.”

“Him rotten, massa, sure nuff,” replied thenegro in a few moments, “but not so berryrotten as mought be. Mought ventur out leetleway pon de limb by myself, dat’s true.”

“By yourself!—what do you mean?”

“Why I mean de bug. ’Tis berry hebby bug.Spose I drop him down fuss, and den de limbwon’t break wid just de weight ob one nigger.”

“You infernal scoundrel!” cried Legrand,apparently much relieved, “what do you meanby telling me such nonsense as that? As sure asyou let that beetle fall!—I’ll break your neck.

1.1. A CHALLENGE 11

Look here, Jupiter! do you hear me?”

“Yes, massa, needn’t hollo at poor niggerdat style.”

“Well! now listen!—if you will venture outon the limb as far as you think safe, and notlet go the beetle, I’ll make you a present of asilver dollar as soon as you get down.”

“I’m gwine, Massa Will—deed I is,” repliedthe negro very promptly—“mos out to the eendnow.”

“Out to the end!” here fairly screamedLegrand, “do you say you are out to the end ofthat limb?”

“Soon be to de eend, massa,—o-o-o-o-oh!Lor-gol-a-marcy! what is dis here pon de tree?”

“Well!” cried Legrand, highly delighted,“what is it?”

“Why taint noffin but a skull—somebodybin lef him head up de tree, and de crows donegobble ebery bit ob de meat off.”

“A skull, you say!—very well!—how is itfastened to the limb?—what holds it on?”

“Sure nuff, massa; mus look. Why dis berrycurous sarcumstance, pon my word—dare’s agreat big nail in de skull, what fastens ob it onto de tree.”

“Well now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tellyou—do you hear?”

“Yes, massa.”

“Pay attention, then!—find the left eye ofthe skull.”

“Hum! hoo! dat’s good! why dar ain’t noeye lef’ at all.”

“Curse your stupidity! do you know yourright hand from your left?”

“Yes, I nose dat—nose all bout dat—’tismy left hand what I chops de wood wid.”

“To be sure! you are left-handed; and yourleft eye is on the same side as your left hand.Now, I suppose, you can find the left eye of theskull, or the place where the left eye has been.Have you found it?”

Here was a long pause. At length the negroasked,

“Is de lef’ eye of de skull pon de same sideas de lef’ hand of de skull, too?—cause de skullain’t got not a bit ob a hand at all—nebbermind! I got de lef’ eye now—here de lef’ eye!what mus do wid it?”

“Let the beetle drop through it, as far asthe string will reach—but be careful and notlet go your hold of the string.”

“All dat done, Massa Will; mighty easy tingfor to put de bug fru de hole—look out for himdar below?”

During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter’sperson could be seen; but the beetle, whichhe had suffered to descend, was now visibleat the end of the string, and glistened, likea globe of burnished gold, in the last rays ofthe setting sun, some of which still faintly illu-mined the eminence upon which we stood. Thescarabaeus hung quite clear of any branches,and, if allowed to fall, would have fAllan atour feet. Legrand immediately took the scythe,and cleared with it a circular space, three orfour yards in diameter, just beneath the insect,and, having accomplished this, ordered Jupiterto let go the string and come down from thetree.

Driving a peg, with great nicety, into theground, at the precise spot where the beetlefell, my friend now produced from his pocketa tape-measure. Fastening one end of this atthat point of the trunk of the tree which wasnearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reachedthe peg, and thence farther unrolled it, in thedirection already established by the two pointsof the tree and the peg, for the distance offifty feet—Jupiter clearing away the brambleswith the scythe. At the spot thus attaineda second peg was driven, and about this, asa centre, a rude circle, about four feet in di-ameter, described. Taking now a spade him-


self, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me,Legrand begged us to set about one to diggingas quickly as possible.

To speak the truth, I had no especial rel-ish for such amusement at any time, and, atthat particular moment, would most willinglyhave declined it; for the night was coming on,and I felt much fatigued with the exercise al-ready taken; but I saw no mode of escape, andwas fearful of disturbing my poor friend’s equa-nimity by a refusal. Could I have depended,indeed, upon Jupiter’s aid, I would have hadno hesitation in attempting to get the lunatichome by force; but I was too well assured ofthe old negro’s disposition, to hope that hewould assist me, under any circumstances, ina personal contest with his master. I made nodoubt that the latter had been infected withsome of the innumerable Southern supersti-tions about money buried, and that his phan-tasy had received confirmation by the findingof the scarabaeus, or, perhaps, by Jupiter’s ob-stinacy in maintaining it to be “a bug of realgold.” A mind disposed to lunacy would readilybe led away by such suggestions—especially ifchiming in with favorite preconceived ideas—and then I called to mind the poor fellow’sspeech about the beetle’s being “the index ofhis fortune.” Upon the whole, I was sadly vexedand puzzled, but, at length, I concluded tomake a virtue of necessity—to dig with a goodwill, and thus the sooner to convince the vi-sionary, by ocular demonstration, of the fallacyof the opinions he entertained.

The lanterns having been lit, we all fellto work with a zeal worthy a more rationalcause; and, as the glare fell upon our personsand implements, I could not help thinking howpicturesque a group we composed, and howstrange and suspicious our labors must have ap-peared to any interloper who, by chance, mighthave stumbled upon our whereabouts.

We dug very steadily for two hours. Littlewas said; and our chief embarrassment lay inthe yelpings of the dog, who took exceedinginterest in our proceedings. He, at length, be-came so obstreperous that we grew fearful ofhis giving the alarm to some stragglers in thevicinity;—or, rather, this was the apprehensionof Legrand; –for myself, I should have rejoicedat any interruption which might have enabledme to get the wanderer home. The noise was,at length, very effectually silenced by Jupiter,who, getting out of the hole with a dogged airof deliberation, tied the brute’s mouth up withone of his suspenders, and then returned, witha grave chuckle, to his task.

When the time mentioned had expired, wehad reached a depth of five feet, and yet nosigns of any treasure became manifest. A gen-eral pause ensued, and I began to hope thatthe farce was at an end. Legrand, however,although evidently much disconcerted, wipedhis brow thoughtfully and recommenced. Wehad excavated the entire circle of four feetdiameter, and now we slightly enlarged thelimit, and went to the farther depth of twofeet. Still nothing appeared. The gold-seeker,whom I sincerely pitied, at length clamberedfrom the pit, with the bitterest disappointmentimprinted upon every feature, and proceeded,slowly and reluctantly, to put on his coat, whichhe had thrown off at the beginning of his labor.In the mean time I made no remark. Jupiter,at a signal from his master, began to gatherup his tools. This done, and the dog havingbeen unmuzzled, we turned in profound silencetowards home.

We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps inthis direction, when, with a loud oath, Legrandstrode up to Jupiter, and seized him by thecollar. The astonished negro opened his eyesand mouth to the fullest extent, let fall thespades, and fell upon his knees.

1.1. A CHALLENGE 13

“You scoundrel,” said Legrand, hissing outthe syllables from between his clenched teeth—“you infernal black villain!—speak, I tell you!—answer me this instant, without prevarication!which—which is your left eye?”

“Oh, my golly, Massa Will! ain’t dis heremy lef’ eye for sartain?” roared the terrifiedJupiter, placing his hand upon his right organof vision, and holding it there with a desper-ate pertinacity, as if in immediate dread of hismaster’s attempt at a gouge.

“I thought so!—I knew it!—hurrah!” vocif-erated Legrand, letting the negro go, and ex-ecuting a series of curvets and caracols, muchto the astonishment of his valet, who, arisingfrom his knees, looked, mutely, from his masterto myself, and then from myself to his master.

“Come! we must go back,” said the latter,“the game’s not up yet;” and he again led theway to the tulip-tree.

“Jupiter,” said he, when we reached itsfoot, come here! was the skull nailed to thelimb with the face outward, or with the face tothe limb?”

“De face was out, massa, so dat de crowscould get at de eyes good, widout any trouble.”

“Well, then, was it this eye or that throughwhich you let the beetle fall?”—here Legrandtouched each of Jupiter’s eyes.

“’Twas dis eye, massa—de lef’ eye—jis asyou tell me,” and here it was his right eye thatthe negro indicated.

“That will do—we must try it again.”

Here my friend, about whose madness Inow saw, or fancied that I saw, certain in-dications of method, removed the peg whichmarked the spot where the beetle fell, to a spotabout three inches to the westward of its for-mer position. Taking, now, the tape-measurefrom the nearest point of the trunk to the peg,as before, and continuing the extension in astraight line to the distance of fifty feet, a spot

was indicated, removed, by several yards, fromthe point at which we had been digging.

Around the new position a circle, somewhatlarger than in the former instance, was nowdescribed, and we again set to work with thespades. I was dreadfully weary, but, scarcelyunderstanding what had occasioned the changein my thoughts, I felt no longer any great aver-sion from the labor imposed. I had becomemost unaccountably interested—nay, even ex-cited. Perhaps there was something, amid allthe extravagant demeanor of Legrand—someair of forethought, or of deliberation, which im-pressed me. I dug eagerly, and now and thencaught myself actually looking, with some-thing that very much resembled expectation,for the fancied treasure, the vision of whichhad demented my unfortunate companion. Ata period when such vagaries of thought mostfully possessed me, and when we had beenat work perhaps an hour and a half, we wereagain interrupted by the violent howlings of thedog. His uneasiness, in the first instance, hadbeen, evidently, but the result of playfulnessor caprice, but he now assumed a bitter andserious tone. Upon Jupiter’s again attempt-ing to muzzle him, he made furious resistance,and, leaping into the hole, tore up the mouldfrantically with his claws. In a few seconds hehad uncovered a mass of human bones, form-ing two complete skeletons, intermingled withseveral buttons of metal, and what appearedto be the dust of decayed woollen. One or twostrokes of a spade upturned the blade of a largeSpanish knife, and, as we dug farther, three orfour loose pieces of gold and silver coin cameto light.

At sight of these the joy of Jupiter couldscarcely be restrained, but the countenanceof his master wore an air of extreme disap-pointment. He urged us, however, to continueour exertions, and the words were hardly ut-


tered when I stumbled and fell forward, havingcaught the toe of my boot in a large ring ofiron that lay half buried in the loose earth.

We now worked in earnest, and never didI pass ten minutes of more intense excite-ment. During this interval we had fairly un-earthed an oblong chest of wood, which, fromits perfect preservation, and wonderful hard-ness, had plainly been subjected to some miner-alizing process—perhaps that of the Bi-chlorideof Mercury. This box was three feet and ahalf long, three feet broad, and two and a halffeet deep. It was firmly secured by bands ofwrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind oftrellis-work over the whole. On each side of thechest, near the top, were three rings of iron—six in all—by means of which a firm hold couldbe obtained by six persons. Our utmost unitedendeavors served only to disturb the coffer veryslightly in its bed. We at once saw the impos-sibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily,the sole fastenings of the lid consisted of twosliding bolts. These we drew back—tremblingand panting with anxiety. In an instant, a trea-sure of incalculable value lay gleaming beforeus. As the rays of the lanterns fell within thepit, there flashed upwards, from a confusedheap of gold and of jewels, a glow and a glarethat absolutely dazzled our eyes.

I shall not pretend to describe the feel-ings with which I gazed. Amazement was, ofcourse, predominant. Legrand appeared ex-hausted with excitement, and spoke very fewwords. Jupiter’s countenance wore, for someminutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible,in the nature of things, for any negro’s vis-age to assume. He seemed stupefied—thunder-stricken. Presently he fell upon his knees inthe pit, and, burying his naked arms up to theelbows in gold, let them there remain, as if en-joying the luxury of a bath. At length, with adeep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy.

“And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de puttygoole-bug! de poor little goole-bug, what Iboosed in dat sabage kind ob style! Ain’t youshamed ob yourself, nigger?—answer me dat!”

It became necessary, at last, that I shouldarouse both master and valet to the expediencyof removing the treasure. It was growing late,and it behooved us to make exertion, that wemight get every thing housed before daylight.It was difficult to say what should be done; andmuch time was spent in deliberation—so con-fused were the ideas of all. We, finally, light-ened the box by removing two thirds of its con-tents, when we were enabled, with some trou-ble, to raise it from the hole. The articles takenout were deposited among the brambles, andthe dog left to guard them, with strict ordersfrom Jupiter neither, upon any pretence, to stirfrom the spot, nor to open his mouth until ourreturn. We then hurriedly made for home withthe chest; reaching the hut in safety, but afterexcessive toil, at one o’clock in the morning.Worn out as we were, it was not in human na-ture to do more just then. We rested until two,and had supper; starting for the hills immedi-ately afterwards, armed with three stout sacks,which, by good luck, were upon the premises.A little before four we arrived at the pit, di-vided the remainder of the booty, as equallyas might be, among us, and, leaving the holesunfilled, again set out for the hut, at which,for the second time, we deposited our goldenburthens, just as the first streaks of the dawngleamed from over the tree-tops in the East.

We were now thoroughly broken down; butthe intense excitement of the time denied us re-pose. After an unquiet slumber of some threeor four hours’ duration, we arose, as if by pre-concert, to make examination of our treasure.

The chest had been full to the brim, andwe spent the whole day, and the greater partof the next night, in a scrutiny of its con-

1.1. A CHALLENGE 15

tents. There had been nothing like order orarrangement. Every thing had been heaped inpromiscuously. Having assorted all with care,we found ourselves possessed of even vasterwealth than we had at first supposed. In cointhere was rather more than four hundred andfifty thousand dollars—estimating the value ofthe pieces, as accurately as we could, by thetables of the period. There was not a parti-cle of silver. All was gold of antique date andof great variety—French, Spanish, and Germanmoney, with a few English guineas, and somecounters, of which we had never seen spec-imens before. There were several very largeand heavy coins, so worn that we could makenothing of their inscriptions. There was noAmerican money. The value of the jewels wefound more difficulty in estimating. There werediamonds—some of them exceedingly large andfine—a hundred and ten in all, and not oneof them small; eighteen rubies of remarkablebrilliancy;—three hundred and ten emeralds, allvery beautiful; and twenty-one sapphires, withan opal. These stones had all been broken fromtheir settings and thrown loose in the chest.The settings themselves, which we picked outfrom among the other gold, appeared to havebeen beaten up with hammers, as if to pre-vent identification. Besides all this, there was avast quantity of solid gold ornaments;—nearlytwo hundred massive finger and ear rings;—richchains –thirty of these, if I remember;—eighty-three very large and heavy crucifixes;—five goldcensers of great value;—a prodigious goldenpunch-bowl, ornamented with richly chasedvine-leaves and Bacchanalian figures; with twosword-handles exquisitely embossed, and manyother smaller articles which I cannot recollect.The weight of these valuables exceeded threehundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and inthis estimate I have not included one hundredand ninety-seven superb gold watches; three

of the number being worth each five hundreddollars, if one. Many of them were very old,and as time keepers valueless; the works hav-ing suffered, more or less, from corrosion—butall were richly jewelled and in cases of greatworth. We estimated the entire contents ofthe chest, that night, at a million and a half ofdollars; and, upon the subsequent disposal ofthe trinkets and jewels (a few being retained forour own use), it was found that we had greatlyundervalued the treasure.

When, at length, we had concluded our ex-amination, and the intense excitement of thetime had, in some measure, subsided, Legrand,who saw that I was dying with impatience fora solution of this most extraordinary riddle, en-tered into a full detail of all the circumstancesconnected with it.

“You remember,” said he, “the night whenI handed you the rough sketch I had made ofthe scarabaeus. You recollect also, that I be-came quite vexed at you for insisting that mydrawing resembled a death’s-head. When youfirst made this assertion I thought you werejesting; but afterwards I called to mind the pe-culiar spots on the back of the insect, and ad-mitted to myself that your remark had somelittle foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at mygraphic powers irritated me—for I am consid-ered a good artist—and, therefore, when youhanded me the scrap of parchment, I was aboutto crumple it up and throw it angrily into thefire.”

“The scrap of paper, you mean,” said I.

“No; it had much of the appearance of pa-per, and at first I supposed it to be such, butwhen I came to draw upon it, I discovered it,at once, to be a piece of very thin parchment.It was quite dirty, you remember. Well, as Iwas in the very act of crumpling it up, myglance fell upon the sketch at which you hadbeen looking, and you may imagine my aston-


ishment when I perceived, in fact, the figureof a death’s-head just where, it seemed to me,I had made the drawing of the beetle. For amoment I was too much amazed to think withaccuracy. I knew that my design was very dif-ferent in detail from this—although there was acertain similarity in general outline. Presently Itook a candle, and seating myself at the otherend of the room, proceeded to scrutinize theparchment more closely. Upon turning it over,I saw my own sketch upon the reverse, just asI had made it. My first idea, now, was meresurprise at the really remarkable similarity ofoutline—at the singular coincidence involvedin the fact, that unknown to me, there shouldhave been a skull upon the other side of theparchment, immediately beneath my figure ofthe scarabaeus and that this skull, not only inoutline, but in size, should so closely resemblemy drawing. I say the singularity of this co-incidence absolutely stupefied me for a time.This is the usual effect of such coincidences.The mind struggles to establish a connection—a sequence of cause and effect—and, being un-able to do so, suffers a species of temporaryparalysis. But, when I recovered from this stu-por, there dawned upon me gradually a con-viction which startled me even far more thanthe coincidence. I began distinctly, positively,to remember that there had been no drawingon the parchment when I made my sketch ofthe scarabaeus. I became perfectly certain ofthis; for I recollected turning up first one sideand then the other, in search of the cleanestspot. Had the skull been then there, of courseI could not have failed to notice it. Here wasindeed a mystery which I felt it impossible toexplain; but, even at that early moment, thereit seemed to glimmer, faintly, within the mostremote and secret chambers of my intellect, aglow-worm-like conception of that truth whichlast night’s adventure brought to so magnif-

icent a demonstration. I arose at once, andputting the parchment securely away, dismissedall farther reflection until I should be alone.

“When you had gone, and when Jupiter wasfast asleep, I betook myself to a more methodi-cal investigation of the affair. In the first placeI considered the manner in which the parch-ment had come into my possession. The spotwhere we discovered the scarabaeus was on thecoast of the main land, about a mile eastwardof the island, and but a short distance abovehigh water mark. Upon my taking hold of it,it gave me a sharp bite, which caused me tolet it drop. Jupiter, with his accustomed cau-tion, before seizing the insect, which had flowntowards him, looked about him for a leaf, orsomething of that nature, by which to take holdof it. It was at this moment that his eyes, andmine also, fell upon the scrap of parchment,which I then supposed to be paper. It was ly-ing half buried in the sand, a corner sticking up.Near the spot where we found it, I observed theremnants of the hull of what appeared to havebeen a ship’s long boat. The wreck seemed tohave been there for a very great while; for theresemblance to boat timbers could scarcely betraced.

“Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment,wrapped the beetle in it, and gave it to me.Soon afterwards we turned to go home, andon the way met Lieutenant G–. I showed himthe insect, and he begged me to let him takeit to the fort. On my consenting, he thrustit forthwith into his waistcoat pocket, withoutthe parchment in which it had been wrapped,and which I had continued to hold in my handduring his inspection. Perhaps he dreaded mychanging my mind, and thought it best to makesure of the prize at once—you know how en-thusiastic he is on all subjects connected withNatural History. At the same time without be-ing conscious of it, I must have deposited the

1.1. A CHALLENGE 17

parchment in my own pocket.

“You remember that when I went to the ta-ble, for the purpose of making a sketch of thebeetle, I found no paper where it was usuallykept. I looked in the drawer, and found nonethere. I searched my pockets, hoping to findan old letter—and then my hand fell upon theparchment. I thus detail the precise mode inwhich it came into my possession; for the cir-cumstances impressed me with peculiar force.

“No doubt you will think me fanciful—butI had already established a kind of connexion.I had put together two links of a great chain.There was a boat lying on a sea-coast, andnot far from the boat was a parchment—not apaper—with a skull depicted on it. You will,of course, ask ‘where is the connexion?’ I re-ply that the skull, or death’s-head, is the well-known emblem of the pirate. The flag of thedeath’s-head is hoisted in all engagements.

“I have said that the scrap was parch-ment, and not paper. Parchment is durable—almost imperishable. Matters of little momentare rarely consigned to parchment; since, forthe mere ordinary purposes of drawing or writ-ing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper.This reflection suggested some meaning—somerelevancy—in the death’s-head. I did not failto observe, also, the form of the parchment.Although one of its corners had been, by someaccident, destroyed, it could be seen that theoriginal form was oblong. It was just such aslip, indeed, as might have been chosen for amemorandum—for a record of something to belong remembered and carefully preserved.”

“But,” I interposed, “you say that the skullwas not upon the parchment when you madethe drawing of the beetle. How then do youtrace any connexion between the boat and theskull—since this latter, according to your ownadmission, must have been designed (God onlyknows how or by whom) at some period sub-

sequent to your sketching the scarabaeus?”

“Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; al-though the secret, at this point, I had compara-tively little difficulty in solving. My steps weresure, and could afford but a single result. Ireasoned, for example, thus: When I drew thescarabaeus, there was no skull apparent on theparchment. When I had completed the draw-ing, I gave it to you, and observed you narrowlyuntil you returned it. You, therefore, did notdesign the skull, and no one else was present todo it. Then it was not done by human agency.And nevertheless it was done.

“At this stage of my reflections I endeav-ored to remember, and did remember, with en-tire distinctness, every incident which occurredabout the period in question. The weather waschilly (oh rare and happy accident!), and a firewas blazing on the hearth. I was heated withexercise and sat near the table. You, however,had drawn a chair close to the chimney. Justas I placed the parchment in your hand, and asyou were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, theNewfoundland, entered, and leaped upon yourshoulders. With your left hand you caressedhim and kept him off, while your right, holdingthe parchment, was permitted to fall listlesslybetween your knees, and in close proximity tothe fire. At one moment I thought the blazehad caught it, and was about to caution you,but, before I could speak, you had withdrawnit, and were engaged in its examination. WhenI considered all these particulars, I doubted notfor a moment that heat had been the agent inbringing to light, on the parchment, the skullwhich I saw designed on it. You are well awarethat chemical preparations exist, and have ex-isted time out of mind, by means of which it ispossible to write on either paper or vellum, sothat the characters shall become visible onlywhen subjected to the action of fire. Zaire,digested in aqua regia, and diluted with four


times its weight of water, is sometimes em-ployed; a green tint results. The regulus ofcobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red.These colors disappear at longer or shorter in-tervals after the material written on cools, butagain become apparent upon the re-applicationof heat.

“I now scrutinized the death’s-head withcare. Its outer edges—the edges of the draw-ing nearest the edge of the vellum—were farmore distinct than the others. It was clear thatthe action of the caloric had been imperfector unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, andsubjected every portion of the parchment to aglowing heat. At first, the only effect was thestrengthening of the faint lines in the skull; but,on persevering in the experiment, there becamevisible, at the corner of the slip, diagonally op-posite to the spot in which the death’s-headwas delineated, the figure of what I at first sup-posed to be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however,satisfied me that it was intended for a kid.”

“Ha! ha!” said I, “to be sure I have noright to laugh at you—a million and a half ofmoney is too serious a matter for mirth—butyou are not about to establish a third link inyour chain—you will not find any especial con-nexion between your pirates and goat—pirates,you know, have nothing to do with goats; theyappertain to the farming interest.”

“But I have just said that the figure wasnot that of a goat.”

“Well, a kid then—pretty much the samething.”

“Pretty much, but not altogether,” saidLegrand. “You may have heard of one Cap-tain Kidd. I at once looked on the figure of theanimal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphicalsignature. I say signature; because its posi-tion on the vellum suggested this idea. Thedeath’s-head at the corner diagonally opposite,had, in the same manner, the air of a stamp,

or seal. But I was sorely put out by the ab-sence of all else—of the body to my imaginedinstrument—of the text for my context.”

“I presume you expected to find a letterbetween the stamp and the signature.”

“Something of that kind. The fact is, Ifelt irresistibly impressed with a presentimentof some vast good fortune impending. I canscarcely say why. Perhaps, after all, it wasrather a desire than an actual belief; –but doyou know that Jupiter’s silly words, about thebug being of solid gold, had a remarkable effecton my fancy? And then the series of accidentsand coincidences—these were so very extraor-dinary. Do you observe how mere an accidentit was that these events should have occurredon the sole day of all the year in which it hasbeen, or may be, sufficiently cool for fire, andthat without the fire, or without the interven-tion of the dog at the precise moment in whichhe appeared, I should never have become awareof the death’s-head, and so never the possessorof the treasure?”

“But proceed—I am all impatience.”

“Well; you have heard, of course, the manystories current—the thousand vague rumorsafloat about money buried, somewhere on theAtlantic coast, by Kidd and his associates.These rumors must have had some foundationin fact. And that the rumors have existed solong and so continuously could have resulted, itappeared to me, only from the circumstance ofthe buried treasure still remaining entombed.Had Kidd concealed his plunder for a time,and afterwards reclaimed it, the rumors wouldscarcely have reached us in their present un-varying form. You will observe that the storiestold are all about money-seekers, not aboutmoney-finders. Had the pirate recovered hismoney, there the affair would have dropped.It seemed to me that some accident—say theloss of a memorandum indicating its locality—

1.1. A CHALLENGE 19

had deprived him of the means of recoveringit, and that this accident had become knownto is followers, who otherwise might never haveheard that treasure had been concealed at all,and who, busying themselves in vain, becauseunguided attempts, to regain it, had given firstbirth, and then universal currency, to the re-ports which are now so common. Have youever heard of any important treasure being un-earthed along the coast?”

“Never.”“But that Kidd’s accumulations were im-

mense, is well known. I took it for granted,therefore, that the earth still held them; andyou will scarcely be surprised when I tell youthat I felt a hope, nearly amounting to cer-tainty, that the parchment so strangely found,involved a lost record of the place of deposit.”

“But how did you proceed?”“I held the vellum again to the fire, after

increasing the heat; but nothing appeared. Inow thought it possible that the coating of dirtmight have something to do with the failure;so I carefully rinsed the parchment by pouringwarm water over it, and, having done this, Iplaced it in a tin pan, with the skull downwards,and put the pan upon a furnace of lighted char-coal. In a few minutes, the pan having becomethoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and, tomy inexpressible joy, found it spotted, in sev-eral places, with what appeared to be figuresarranged in lines. Again I placed it in the pan,and suffered it to remain another minute. Ontaking it off, the whole was just as you see itnow.”

Here Legrand, having re-heated the parch-ment, submitted It my inspection. The follow-ing characters were rudely traced, in a red tint,between the death’s-head and the goat:

53++!305))6*;4826)4+.)4+);806*;

48!8‘60))85;]8*:+*8!83(88)5*!;

46(;88*96*?;8)*+(;485);5*!2:*+

(;4956*2(5*-4)8‘8*;

4069285);)6

!8)4++;1(+9;48081;8:8+1;48!85;4

)485!528806*81(+9;48;(88;4(+?3

4;48)4+;161;:188;+?;

“But,” said I, returning him the slip, “I amas much in the dark as ever. Were all the jewelsof Golconda awaiting me on my solution of thisenigma, I am quite sure that I should be unableto earn them.”

“And yet,” said Legrand, “the solution isby no means so difficult as you might be ledto imagine from the first hasty inspection ofthe characters. These characters, as any onemight readily guess, form a cipher—that is tosay, they convey a meaning; but then, fromwhat is known of Kidd, I could not supposehim capable of constructing any of the moreabstruse cryptographs. I made up my mind, atonce, that this was of a simple species—such,however, as would appear, to the crude intellectof the sailor, absolutely insoluble without thekey.”

“And you really solved it?”“Readily; I have solved others of an ab-

struseness ten thousand times greater. Cir-cumstances, and a certain bias of mind, haveled me to take interest in such riddles, and itmay well be doubted whether human ingenuitycan construct an enigma of the kind which hu-man ingenuity may not, by proper application,resolve. In fact, having once established con-nected and legible characters, I scarcely gavea thought to the mere difficulty of developingtheir import.

“In the present case—indeed in all cases ofsecret writing—the first question regards thelanguage of the cipher; for the principles of so-lution, so far, especially, as the more simple ci-phers are concerned, depend on, and are variedby, the genius of the particular idiom. In gen-eral, there is no alternative but experiment (di-


rected by probabilities) of every tongue knownto him who attempts the solution, until thetrue one be attained. But, with the cipher nowbefore us, all difficulty is removed by the signa-ture. The pun on the word ‘Kidd’ is appreciablein no other language than the English. But forthis consideration I should have begun my at-tempts with the Spanish and French, as thetongues in which a secret of this kind wouldmost naturally have been written by a pirateof the Spanish main. As it was, I assumed thecryptograph to be English.

“You observe there are no divisions betweenthe words. Had there been divisions, the taskwould have been comparatively easy. In suchcase I should have commenced with a colla-tion and analysis of the shorter words, and,had a word of a single letter occurred, as ismost likely, (a or I, for example,) I should haveconsidered the solution as assured. But, therebeing no division, my first step was to ascer-tain the predominant letters, as well as the leastfrequent. Counting all, I constructed a table,thus:

Of the character 8 there are 33.; ⇔ 26.4 ⇔ 19.

+ ) ⇔ 16.* ⇔ 13.5 ⇔ 12.6 ⇔ 11.

! 1 ⇔ 8.0 ⇔ 6.9 2 ⇔ 5.: 3 ⇔ 4.? ⇔ 3.‘ ⇔ 2.. ⇔ 1.

“Now, in English, the letter which most fre-quently occurs is e. Afterwards, the successionruns thus: a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m w b

k p q x z. E however predominates so remark-ably that an individual sentence of any lengthis rarely seen, in which it is not the prevailingcharacter.

“Here, then, we have, in the very begin-ning, the groundwork for something more thana mere guess. The general use which may bemade of the table is obvious—but, in this par-ticular cipher, we shall only very partially re-quire its aid. As our predominant characteris 8, we will commence by assuming it as thee of the natural alphabet. To verify the sup-position, let us observe if the 8 be seen of-ten in couples—for e is doubled with great fre-quency in English—in such words, for exam-ple, as ‘meet,’ ‘fleet,’ ‘speed,’ ’seen,’ ‘been,’‘agree,’ &c. In the present instance we see itdoubled no less than five times, although thecryptograph is brief.

“Let us assume 8, then, as e. Now, of allwords in the language, ‘the’ is the most usual;let us see, therefore, whether they are not rep-etitions of any three characters in the same or-der of collocation, the last of them being 8. Ifwe discover repetitions of such letters, so ar-ranged, they will most probably represent theword ‘the.’ On inspection, we find no less thanseven such arrangements, the characters be-ing ;48. We may, therefore, assume that thesemicolon represents t, that 4 represents h, andthat 8 represents e—the last being now wellconfirmed. Thus a great step has been taken.

“But, having established a single word, weare enabled to establish a vastly importantpoint; that is to say, several commencementsand terminations of other words. Let us re-fer, for example, to the last instance but one,in which the combination tt ;48 occurs—notfar from the end of the cipher. We know thatthe semicolon immediately ensuing is the com-mencement of a word, and, of the six charac-ters succeeding this ‘the,’ we are cognizant of

1.1. A CHALLENGE 21

no less than five. Let us set these charactersdown, thus, by the letters we know them torepresent, leaving a space for the unknown—

t eeth.

“Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the‘th,’ as forming no portion of the word com-mencing with the first t; since, by experimentof the entire alphabet for a letter adapted tothe vacancy we perceive that no word can beformed of which this th can be a part. We arethus narrowed into

t ee,

and, going through the alphabet, if necessary,as before, we arrive at the word ‘tree,’ as thesole possible reading. We thus gain anotherletter, r, represented by (, with the words ‘thetree’ in juxtaposition.

“Looking beyond these words, for a shortdistance, we again see the combination ;48,and employ it by way of termination to whatimmediately precedes. We have thus this ar-rangement:

the tree ;4(+?34 the,

or substituting the natural letters, whereknown, it reads thus:

the tree thr+?3h the.

“Now, if, in place of the unknown charac-ters, we leave blank spaces, or substitute dots,we read thus:

the tree thr...h the,

when the word ‘through’ makes itself evidentat once. But this discovery gives us three newletters, o, u and g, represented by + ? and 3.

“Looking now, narrowly, through the cipherfor combinations of known characters, we find,not very far from the beginning, this arrange-ment,

83(88, or egree,

which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word‘degree,’ and gives us another letter, d, repre-sented by !.

“Four letters beyond the word ‘degree,’ weperceive the combination

;46(;88*.

“Translating the known characters, and repre-senting the unknown by dots, as before, weread thus:

th.rtee.

an arrangement immediately suggestive of theword ‘thirteen,’ and again furnishing us withtwo new characters, i and n, represented by 6

and *.

“Referring, now, to the beginning of thecryptograph, we find the combination,

53++!.

“Translating, as before, we obtain

.good,

which assures us that the first letter is A, andthat the first two words are ‘A good.’

“To avoid confusion, it is now time thatwe arrange our key, as far as discovered, in atabular form. It will stand thus:

5 represents a! ⇔ d8 ⇔ e3 ⇔ g4 ⇔ h6 ⇔ i* ⇔ n+ ⇔ o( ⇔ r; ⇔ t


“We have, therefore, no less than ten ofthe most important letters represented, and itwill be unnecessary to proceed with the detailsof the solution. I have said enough to con-vince you that ciphers of this nature are readilysoluble, and to give you some insight into therationale of their development. But be assuredthat the specimen before us appertains to thevery simplest species of cryptograph. It nowonly remains to give you the full translation ofthe characters upon the parchment, as unrid-dled. Here it is:

‘A good glass in the bishop’s hostelin the devil’s seat twenty-one de-grees and thirteen minutes north-east and by north main branch sev-enth limb east side shoot from theleft eye of the death’s-head a beeline from the tree through the shotfifty feet out.’”

“But,” said I, “the enigma seems still inas bad a condition as ever. How is it possibleto extort a meaning from all this jargon about‘devil’s seats,’ ‘death’s-heads,’ and ‘bishop’shostel’?”

“I confess,” replied Legrand, “that the mat-ter still wears a serious aspect, when regardedwith a casual glance. My first endeavor wasto divide the sentence into the natural divisionintended by the cryptographist.”

“You mean, to punctuate it?”

“Something of that kind.”

“But how was it possible to effect this?”

“I reflected that it had been a point withthe writer to run his words together withoutdivision, so as to increase the difficulty of so-lution. Now, a not overacute man, in pursu-ing such an object, would be nearly certain tooverdo the matter. When, in the course of hiscomposition, he arrived at a break in his sub-ject which would naturally require a pause, or

a point, he would be exceedingly apt to runhis characters, at this place, more than usuallyclose together. If you will observe the MS., inthe present instance, you will easily detect fivesuch cases of unusual crowding. Acting on thishint, I made the division thus:

‘A good glass in the bishop’s hostelin the devil’s—twenty-one degreesand thirteen minutes—northeastand by north—main branch sev-enth limb east side—shoot fromthe left eye of the death’s-head—abee-line from the tree through theshot fifty feet out.’”

“Even this division,” said I, “leaves me stillin the dark.”

“It left me also in the dark,” repliedLegrand, “for a few days; during which I madediligent inquiry, in the neighborhood of Sulli-van’s Island, for any building which went by thename of the ‘Bishop’s Hotel’; for, of course, Idropped the obsolete word ‘hostel.’ Gaining noinformation on the subject, I was on the pointof extending my sphere of search, and proceed-ing in a more systematic manner, when, onemorning, it entered into my head, quite sud-denly, that this ‘Bishop’s Hostel’ might havesome reference to an old family, of the nameof Bessop, which, time out of mind, had heldpossession of an ancient manor-house, aboutfour miles to the northward of the Island. Iaccordingly went over to the plantation, andreinstituted my inquiries among the older ne-groes of the place. At length one of the mostaged of the women said that she had heard ofsuch a place as Bessop’s Castle, and thoughtthat she could guide me to it, but that it wasnot a castle, nor a tavern, but a high rock.

“I offered to pay her well for her trouble,and, after some demur, she consented to ac-company me to the spot. We found it without

1.1. A CHALLENGE 23

much difficulty, when, dismissing her, I pro-ceeded to examine the place. The ‘castle’ con-sisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs androcks—one of the latter being quite remark-able for its height as well as for its insulatedand artificial appearance. I clambered to itsapex, and then felt much at a loss as to whatshould be next done.

“While I was busied in reflection, my eyesfell upon a narrow ledge in the eastern faceof the rock, perhaps a yard below the summiton which I stood. This ledge projected abouteighteen inches, and was not more than a footwide, while a niche in the cliff just above it,gave it a rude resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our ancestors. I made nodoubt that here was the ‘devil’s-seat’ alluded toin the MS., and now I seemed to grasp the fullsecret of the riddle.

“The ‘good glass,’ I knew, could have ref-erence to nothing but a telescope; for the word‘glass’ is rarely employed in any other sense byseamen. Now here, I at once saw, was a tele-scope to be used, and a definite point of view,admitting no variation, from which to use it.Nor did I hesitate to believe that the phrases,‘twenty-one degrees and thirteen minutes,’ and‘northeast and by north,’ were intended as di-rections for the levelling of the glass. Greatlyexcited by these discoveries, I hurried home,procured a telescope, and returned to the rock.

“I let myself down to the ledge, and foundthat it was impossible to retain a seat on itunless in one particular position. This factconfirmed my preconceived idea. I proceededto use the glass. Of course, the ‘twenty-onedegrees and thirteen minutes’ could allude tonothing but elevation above the visible horizon,since the horizontal direction was clearly indi-cated by the words, ‘northeast and by north.’This latter direction I at once established bymeans of a pocket-compass; then, pointing the

glass as nearly at an angle of twenty-one de-grees of elevation as I could do it by guess, Imoved it cautiously up or down, until my atten-tion was arrested by a circular rift or opening inthe foliage of a large tree that overtopped itsfellows in the distance. In the centre of this riftI perceived a white spot, but could not, at first,distinguish what it was. Adjusting the focus ofthe telescope, I again looked, and now made itout to be a human skull.

“On this discovery I was so sanguine asto consider the enigma solved; for the phrase‘main branch, seventh limb, east side,’ could re-fer only to the position of the skull on the tree,while shoot from the left eye of the death’s-head’ admitted, also, of but one interpretation,in regard to a search for buried treasure. I per-ceived that the design was to drop a bullet fromthe left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or,in other words, a straight line, drawn from thenearest point of the trunk through ‘the shot,’(or the spot where the bullet fell,) and thenceextended to a distance of fifty feet, would indi-cate a definite point—and beneath this pointI thought it at least possible that a deposit ofvalue lay concealed.”

“All this,” I said, “is exceedingly clear, and,although ingenious, still simple and explicit.When you left the Bishop’s Hotel, what then?”

“Why, having carefully taken the bearingsof the tree, I turned homewards. The instantthat I left ‘the devil’s seat,’ however, the circu-lar rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of itafterwards, turn as I would. What seems to methe chief ingenuity in this whole business, is thefact (for repeated experiment has convinced meit is a fact) that the circular opening in ques-tion is visible from no other attainable point ofview than that afforded by the narrow ledge onthe face of the rock.

“In this expedition to the ‘Bishop’s Hotel’I had been attended by Jupiter, who had, no


doubt, observed, for some weeks past, the ab-straction of my demeanor, and took especialcare not to leave me alone. But, on the nextday, getting up very early, I contrived to givehim the slip, and went into the hills in searchof the tree. After much toil I found it. When Icame home at night my valet proposed to giveme a flogging. With the rest of the adventureI believe you are as well acquainted as myself.”

“I suppose,” said I, “you missed the spot,in the first attempt at digging through Jupiter’sstupidity in letting the bug fall through theright instead of the left of the skull.”

“Precisely. This mistake made a differenceof about two inches and a half in the ‘shot’—that is to say, in the position of the peg nearestthe tree; and had the treasure been beneath the‘shot,’ the error would have been of little mo-ment; but the ‘shot,’ together with the near-est point of the tree, were merely two pointsfor the establishment of a line of direction; ofcourse the error, however trivial in the begin-ning, increased as we proceeded with the line,and by the time we had gone fifty feet, threwus quite off the scent. But for my deep-seatedconvictions that treasure was here somewhereactually buried, we might have had all our laborin vain.”

“I presume the fancy of the skull, of let-ting fall a bullet through the skull’s eye—wassuggested to Kidd by the piratical flag. Nodoubt he felt a kind of poetical consistency inrecovering his money through this ominous in-signium.”

“Perhaps so; still I cannot help thinkingthat common-sense had quite as much to dowith the matter as poetical consistency. To bevisible from the devil’s-seat, it was necessarythat the object, if small, should be white; andthere is nothing like your human skull for re-taining and even increasing its whiteness underexposure to all vicissitudes of weather.”

“But your grandiloquence, and your con-duct in swinging the beetle—how excessivelyodd! I was sure you were mad. And why didyou insist on letting fall the bug, instead of abullet, from the skull?”

“Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyedby your evident suspicions touching my sanity,and so resolved to punish you quietly, in myown way, by a little bit of sober mystification.For this reason I swung the beetle, and for thisreason I let it fall from the tree. An observationof yours about its great weight suggested thelatter idea.”

“Yes, I perceive; and now there is only onepoint which puzzles me. What are we to makeof the skeletons found in the hole?”

“That is a question I am no more ableto answer than yourself. There seems, how-ever, only one plausible way of accounting forthem—and yet it is dreadful to believe in suchatrocity as my suggestion would imply. It isclear that Kidd—if Kidd indeed secreted thistreasure, which I doubt not—it is clear that hemust have had assistance in the labor. But,the worst of this labor concluded, he may havethought it expedient to remove all participantsin his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows witha mattock were sufficient, while his coadju-tors were busy in the pit; perhaps it required adozen—who shall tell?”

The End

1.2. EXERCISES 25

1.2 Exercises

1. Explain in your words how one, according to Poe, one does frequency analysis. Bedetailed!

2. Using the entire text, including the title through the “The End”, make a frequencytable. Compare the frequencies in Poe’s story to those used in Poe’s story.

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