The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-05

a clearing of perhaps a hundred acres, with
a village of several thousand people and
temple covering half an acre Of ground,
man-eating tiger now held possession while
the clearing had grownup to jungle, and fre
or explosion had laid the great temple In
ruins Ten feet ahead of me waSa second
block passed to that, and then the path
turned to the right and ran over fallen
wall. AS reached this latter place ana
looked around, the tiger was stretched out
on the earth before me in little open
space. His legs were drawn up and he was
gasping, and, though was greatly startled
for moment, soon realized he was dying.
Indeed, he did not live above two minutes
after | set eyes on him. AS l afterward
learned the natives had poisoned the BODY
of man he had killed and only half de-
voured, and in finishing his repast he had
met his fate. He had doubtless just re-
turned from satisfying his thirst at the
ere k. 1t was well for me that l did not
come few minutes earlier. l examined
the body closely, and found the tiger to be
old and NANCY, with many of his teeth de-
cayed. These were sure evidences that he
was solitary" and had no mate. need,
therefore, have no fear that any oiher AMI
NAL more savage than hyena was con-
cealed in the near vicinity.
The temple seemed to have been blown up
with gunpowder. The walls were torn and
rent and knocked down in every direction,
and column and block and carved work lay
heaped together in strange confusion. was
bewildered to see the vegetation growing
up through the ruins so profusely, and 1t
stood me in hand to move carefully In such
a snake infested spot. l picked my way
carefully to the center of the ruins, and
here got pretty fair idea of what the
building had been. Here were the remains
of shrine or altar, which had once been
the cleanest of marble IL was now stained
and moss-grown and covered with creepars.
To look for buried treasure in such jun
BILE was like looking FORE needle in hay
stack: but had come for that purpose, and
felt that | must make @ beginning Fling
ing several stones into the bushes to frlghten
any lurking serpents away, put down my
gun and began at the creepers In little
while uncovered what | said was an altar
or shrine. 1t may not have been. From
the stone floor there was a solid wall about
four feet high, inclosing space about six
feet square. The stone which rested on these
four walls was foot thick, and carved
around the edges. / could not tell whether the
walls inclosed a space or the whole cube
was solid as support for pillar, but aft
err close inspection | discovered spot
where the end of lever might be inserted.
/ had brought Ratchet to help me through
the Jungle With this / cut aud trimmed
small tree, and after much effort | loosened
the capstone until could see that the walls
inclo ed a space. On the surface of this
capstone clearly made out where the foot
of pillar, which had probably helped to
support the roof had rested. 1t lay near
by, but was broken by its fall.
1t was not more than s o'clock in the
morning when l reached the ruins, but it
was 2 o'clock in the afternoon before had
the heavy stone slowed around far enough
to upset its equilibrium and force it to fall
off. | was in n tremble of excitement from
the first, and as | slowed the stone further
and further around l felt more and more
sanguine of a large cavity beneath. L
would not look in, however, until the stone
was clear off. When | did bend over the
wall and look down it was to find a wooden
chest occupying nearly all the space |
sounded it with the pole, and it gave back
such a solid echo that | saw l must
pull the wall down to get at it. This took
me an hour or more, as the plaster was as
hard as the stone; but at length 1 was at
the chest. 1t was closed, but not locked,
and as l threw up the lid my eyes beheld
such a sight as will seldom come to man.
That chest held good solid ton of loot.
how many tens of thousands of dollars
worth | cannot say. There were all the
gold coins of India There were bracelets
anu rings anu anu Shol Alio 1Ald
bars of gold. There were diamonds and
pearls and rubies and other precious stones.
Some were in leather bags, some III parcels,
some tied together. and on the lid of the
trunk was list of articles with the names
of owners.
I hung over the chest for perhaps half an
hour, hardly daring to breathe for fear it
would fly away. | was rich, rich beyond
the widest dream poor man ever had.
lott oil ~
keep the find from the government officials.
l could not move it without help. l was a
stout man, but could not have lifted one
end of the chest clear of the ground. | took
a paper containing four diamonds, pack
age Of gold coin which counted up about
81, $50, and couple of bars of the metal,
and started back to the camp on a run. l
had been so taken up with my work that l
had given no attention to anything else /
now discovered that the heavens were rap
idly darkening, and | had only just reached
camp when a terrible storm set in, and
never let up for moment until after mid
night. The story of my discovery, told
only to the white men of the party, created
intense excitement, but the storm and dark
ness prevented any move. As soon as day
light came, however, we were off, but
terrible disappointment was in store for us.
The chest was there as had left it, but
everything in the shape of contents had
been removed. Without a doubt some ma
tive had been spying on me the day before
as worked. and he had given the alarm
and brought party to the spot during the
night. got $4,000 out of it as it was, but
it only served to annoy me. At 5 o'clock
in the afternoon l had the wealth of two
or three kings in my hands. AT sunrise the
next morning all had vanished-all but the
trife had carried away to prove the fact
Of mn diccOuarv II WAC NV first and 10 OF
find In India, and never think of it with
out being inconsistent enough to hope that
every dollar of the spoil caused the death of
a native.
A Great Fortune Divided.