Then the captain conceived of a plan: he called upon the priest to bless the treasure and remove the curse which had been laid upon it. At first the priest was terrified, and refused; but, as usual, present danger was more insistent with him than future peril, and when he saw the men were desperate and would murder him if he held back, he consented. But during the exorcism a wind arose and blew out the sacred candles. And when he would have poured holy water upon the treasure, the ship lurched and the water was spilt. So the captain wearily bade him desist, for it seemed like struggling against all the powers of heaven and hell. Yet not even the priest said, "Let us throw the accursed thing into the sea." So they clung to their gold and abided their doom. One by one the hand reached for them and they perished, and their comrades cast them into the hungry water, dry-eyed and unheeding as though they knew the thing must be, and only wishing that for them too the hour had struck. There were none left to man the ropes; but the sails remained spread or furled as might be, and the captain stood at the wheel like one in a daze, while the ship moved on to whatever wind might blow. Till at last before them rose the cliffs of England; but there were only the captain and the priest and one other left alive to see them. The captain and the priest didn't speak a word; they didn't even smile, but stood staring stupidly as though it mattered not at all whether this were England or the other side of the ocean. But the third man threw up his hands and let out a great cheer; but a vessel burst in his lungs, and he bent down in sudden pain choking blood, and fell to the deck dead. The captain looked at the priest, and the priest crossed himself, and going to the man muttered swiftly, and with his foot spurned him over the side.... So the story proceeded. I remember how the captain went mad, and wandering from place to place would tell his tale in penance, and so pass on and away. And none of us there but pitied him, for we knew he had been snared into his sin, and the judgment was over heavy. But the priest took the treasure and would have devoted it to the work of Holy Church. So at first he built a chapel; but the foundation was ill-laid, and in a storm the holy house lurched and fell. And he built a hospital, but a fire broke out, and the place was burnt to its foundations. And he chartered a ship to take a band of missionaries to the heathen; but the ship struck an unknown rock at the harbour mouth, and sank. And at last he knew that the thing was accursed beyond redemption; so he sought out a tunnel in the earth, and winding through many passages and caverns he laid the treasure in a secret place, and with the aid of a company of men set a mighty stone upon the entrance, and went his way.