The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1870-04-09


of punniDs or hieroglyphical signature.
say signature; because its position up
on the vellum suggested this idea. The
deaths head at the corner diagonally
opposite, had, in the same manner, the
air Of stamp, or seal. But was sorely
put out by the absence of all else--of the
body to my imagined Instruments the
text for my context"
II presume you expected to Hnd
letter between the stamp and the sigma
ture."
Something of that kind: The fact is,
felt irresistibly impressed with pre-
sentiment of some vast good fortune I'M
ponding. 1 can scarcely say why. Per
haps, after all, it was rather desire
than an actual belief;-but do you know
that Jupiter'a silly words, about the bug
being of solid gold, had a remarkable
effect upon my fancy? And then the
series of accidents and condolences
these were SO rery extraordinary. Do
you observe how mere an accident it was
that these events should have occurred
upon the sole day Of all the year in
which 1t has been, or may be, sufficiently
cool for fire, and that without the fire, or
without the intervention of the dog at
the precise moment in which he appeared,
L should never have become aware OF the
death's-head, and SO never the possessor
of the treasure ?"
"But proceed am all impaticnce."
"Well; you have heard, of course, the
many stories current-the thousand
vague rumors ahoat about money buried,
somewhere upon the Atlantic coast, by
Kidd aud his associates These rumors
must have had some foundation in fac.
And that the rumors have existed so
long and so continuous, could have
resulted, it appeared to me, only from
the circumstance Of the buried treasure
still remaining entombed Had Kidd
concealed his plunder for q time, and
afterwards reclaimed it, the rumors would
scarcely have reached us in their present
unvarying form. You will observe that
! the stories told are all about money
seekers, not about money finders. Had
the pirate recovered his money, there the
affair would have dropped. 1t seemed
to me that some accident-say. the loss
of memorandum indicating its locality
had deprived him of the means of
recovering it, and that this accident had
become know to his followers, who other
wise might never have heard that trea.
sure had been concealed at all, and who,
busying themselves in vain because un-
guided attempts, to regain it, had given
first birth, and then universal currency,
to the reports which are now so common.
Have you ever heard of any important
treasure being unearthcd along the
coast 7"
Never"
But that Kidds accumulations were
immense, is we'll known took it for
granted, therefore, that the earth still
held them; and you will scarcely be sur
prised when tell you that L felt a hope,
nearly amounting to certainty, that the
parchment SO strangely found, involved a
lost record of the place Of deposit"
"Bnt how did you proceed 2"
al held the vellum again to the 6re,
after increasing the heat but nothing
appeared. now thought 1t possible
that the coating of dirt might have some
thing to do with the failure SO | care
fully rinsed the pa.chment by pom ing
warm water over it, and, having done
this, l placed it in tin pan, with the
skull downwards, and put the pan upon
a furnace of lighted charcoal In few
minutes, the pan having become thor
ougbly heated l removed the slip, aud, to
my inexprCssibie joy, found it spotted, in
several places, with what appeared to be
figures arranged in lines. Again
placed ~ in the pan, and suEerea il to
remain another minute. Upon taking it
off, the whole was just as you see it
now"
Here Legrand, having re,heated the
parchment, submitted it to my iuspec-
ton. The following characters were
rudely traced, in red .int, between the
deaths head and the goat;
53tttaO5 l)6*;4s26)4t. J ;s06*;4staF
COZ )S5;i t(:t +Sfs3( 88) )a*f;46l; ;ss*96*?
;8)+tG4S5);5 G4956*2(5+-4)ST8
t;4O69285)D D6tS)4+t;l( t9;4808l; SSH;
48tS5;4 485t528806*8l (t9;4S;(S8;4ttl