Chapter 4-In the Vault

Let us hob and nob with Death—Tennyson

A Lost Treasure

The following inscription was found in a golden locket that was around the neck of Black Beard. Once the cipher was broken the instructions tell of the location of a fabulous diamond.

“ The paper was yellow, and showed a lattice of folds where it had been pressed into the locket; but the handwriting, though small, was clear and neat, and there was no mistaking a word of what was there set down. 'Twas so short, I could read it at once:

The days of our age are threescore years and ten;

And though men be so strong that they come

To fourscore years, yet is their strength then

But labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it

Away, and we are gone.

—Psalm 90, 21

And as for me, my feet are almost gone; My treadings are wellnigh slipped. —73, 6

But let not the waterflood drown me; neither let The deep swallow me up. —69, 11

So, going through the vale of misery, I shall

Use it for a well, till the pools are filled

With water.

—84, 14

For thou hast made the North and the South: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. —89, 6”