The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-09-28

MOuAu hAlOM II MELl Is Il UOs
But started to tell how I got tn
= pirates treasure; and If am con
: tinually switching of" upon al
I. sorts OF side issues, shall never &c
on with my story.
> And there she stood in the doorway
'iswishing" her brOOm-a tall woman
: bent with age, and with her gray hal
I flowing loosely, but tangled, over he
shoulders; and she muttered to her
=. self, with her eyes bent upon tn,
ground, "I'll scatter their cards-Il
teach them to finesse."
Presently she raised her eyes, ant
looked at me-such eyes black
piercing, and beautiful but i'm he
3. glance l saw deep despair, and ;
malignity almost fiendish. And yeI
I withal, the knowledge came to me
= that she suffered; and for her suffer,
4 ing there went forth inyOluntarily
, from her inmOst soul, ray Of sym
pathy-nOt pity, nor cOmmiseratiOn-
: sympathy; and it appeared to pene
trate and soften her nature, without
her knowledge, for her eyes lost some
Of their sullenness, and shOne with g
softer ray.
And then she seemed to sweep with
her broom, and muttered, not noticing
me, 81 sweep them in, weep them
in;" an she glided over the smooth
surface Of the sea, toward LObOs
Island, barely visible by the light OF
the young moon. I could hear her
voice dying away, as her form faded
i'm the distance, and she still repeated,
81 sweep them in, sweep them in" "
We went to bed, but, just at twelve
o'clock, was startled by soft, dull
grating, and | knew the ship had
grounded. was on deck in an i'll
slant, and as instantly cOmprehended
the situation. We had mistaken the
highland island for the shore-line, and
the haze had shut in LObOs Island,
which lies very low, and we were
ashore on it. From this island no
sailing vessel had ever got off, the
quick-sands shifting so rapidly that
one change of tide is sufficient to
secure the destruction of the stoutest
ship; and there we were, hard and
fast, and through the haze / could
hear the voice of the old woman,
muttering, al sweep them in"
Fortunately, the tide was rising,
and we "fired up" furiOusly, and
1 DelIACu NlkOlOuol1s W. hGAu u lew
moments Of intense suspense, which
seemed an hour, as we watched the
water seething and boiling forward
under the fast-reVOlvingp paddles then
a gentle motion, and a long breath,
and the next moment we were safe in
deep water. You may be sure we
gave the shore wide berth for there
mainder of that night, and the next
/ morning we entered the beautiful
harbOr Of Guayma.
1t Is unnecessary to tell of our return
voyage to San Francisco, which we
reached in good health and spirits.
We left our whist-playing friend
somewhere in Mexico. l saw him on
his return, and some time after, was
grieved to hear of his death; but amid
the turmoil Of business, and the ex-
element of travel, the Mexican vOy-
age, with its incidents, soon took its
place among the half-fOrgOtten things
of the past.
And so time rolled on, until early
in the winter of 1869, when ], suffer
ing from slight indispOsItiOn,w was con-
fined TO my room, too unwelI to go
out, and not sick enough to go to bed.
And sat alone in the evening, and
the young moon threw its sickly light
the window, as itslOwly sank into the
west. Presently, as / unused in my
solitude, l heard a gentle, rustling, and,
looking up, saw standing close beside
me the old woman of LObOs Island,
who had so nicely swept us on shore
with her untiring broom.
But she was changed from when 1
had first seen her lin the gulf; her
form, then bent with age, now stood
tall and erect; her hair, though still
disheveled and loose upon her should
ers, had changed from grey to black
and her eyes, once so baleful and vim
dictive, though they still seemed to
flash with the fire Ofinsanity, no long
er bore the dull light of despair, or the
hideOus glance of malice.
] saw and recognized the change
The instructive sympathy which had
gone forth from me at our first meet
ing, had found its kindred spot in her
lost nature; it had sunk and germin-
ated, and now pervaded her whole
being, letting in hope, where before
despair had been suprene-One ray
of brightness, fOrerunner of the dawn
upon her long black night of mis- |
cry.
Little do we dream how many poor, |
lost souls are wandering in the dark |
ness, whom one ray of human sympa-
thy would aid in their first step, CROP |
ing from the gloom; and how insig- |
nificant to Us would be that mighty |
boon for them.
She stood silent for a moment, and |
drawing q queer-lOoking old pack of !
aoVdC from har hnoann Chn hauan 70 /
shuttle, and muttered, half to herself,
and half addressing me: "pm the |
the old woman that rides on a broom;
from LObOs Island I come; l know |
the fiends who the treasure guard, till |
you go to fetch it home. Ia, ha l
shuttle the cards, and sometimes /
draw black, black, black, for a long !
time, but Senor say, Don't you know,
when l have drawn all the black, the |
red comes into play? Yes, one of
your card-players is with me, and
promise you he has no idle time of it;
he would fT1esSe, forsoOth. Ha, ha /!
he does not finesse now. He lives on
- Island, and takes care of my
treasure-my treasure. Ha, hal do
you hear? l want treasure; and you
cannot have it for two long years, un-
less you find the. key. Ha, ha! HO,
no!
And then / remembered that in the
old Mexican voyage, when we were
passing by the islands in the Gulf of
California, we had spoken of their form
erly having been the resort Ofbuccan-
eers, and of treasures being buried
there; and how our whist-playing
friend had said he would like to find a
pirates treasure, and how much cas-
Ter was that mode Of making ones
fortune than grOping about in Mexico
after silver mines; for in those days
the steabOat people had made the pub
lie believe that Mexican mines
could be advantageously worked by
San Francisco capital" and many
and frequent were the assessments
which afterward found their way up
the gulf, under that belief. Some of
my money is there. Peace to its
ashes.
I said to the old woman, "What do
you mean? We had a passenger who
used to talk about fiEessing; you can
not have him."
"Ah, well; he don't talk much now;
he..has other fish to fry; he has a pack
of cards. let him have them to look
at, but he don't play, oh, no! He has
no partner, only the Black they kill
ed when they buried the ingots-; and
he has prejudice against the color of
his companion, which he can not Ov-
ercOme. Ha, Ina! no, no! he, he!
1 said: "Old lady, that's a quuer
sort Of story. Suppose you tell me
where the ingOts are and who buried
them ?"
Again she spoke, and as she spoke,
her voice seemed to lose the hiss, il so
1t may be called, with which she had
commenced, and became softer and
more human: "He was a friend of
mine, SeROr, but his name-oh no!
never will tell. 1 bore him child,
and-what do you think? One day,
when the little reptile-that's what
he called it-squeaked, he dashed out
its brains, Ha, ha! saw the blood
forImany days after this; and SenOr, L
thought wOuld have his life; but, no,
1 loved him still. Ha, ha! what a
mOtheru
"And, pray, what are you doing on
Lobos Island ?'
AZ wait for him. He left me there,
because hush! listen-One night,
when all WAS still and I had drtIpgpd