, 1889-01-24

mas ~ never been llfteuf raul wal
lace asked in surprise. "Doubtless one Of ,
the heirs disipterred it long sgo."
~ think not, tor. oddly enough, I hap. |
pen to be the only heir who was born
there. All the others, even 10 Captain
Starbird' . only son, who was born In Bos-
ton, have first seen the light else where; no
child, but me, who was ever born there,
has ever inherited the stone"
Your predecessors must have put faith
in the old captains curse"
"Well. Paul, fancy they did, for some
queer things have happened. One Of the
heirs pooh. poohed the curse and said be
guessed he'd get that old bowlder up pref
ty quick; 30 he took stout crowbar, in
serted II under one corner OF the stone and
put all his weight upon It, the crowbar
suddenly snapped in two, he fell forward
on the stone and died instantly from the
blow. "a mere coincidence, said Sec
ond heir; 30 he took crowbar and went
at II one moist, showery day in sum,ner
when he thought 1t would come up easily;
he, too, inserted the crowbar under the
stone, and at that instant there came q
binding fash OF lightning and q terrible
crash of thunder; he fell to the ground.
and he too was taken up dead. killed b.
the bolt"
"Ueh!" said Mrs. Wallace, shiverinR,
"What An eerie taler'
III do hope you'll not touch the norrid
thing!" exclaimed Maude, more earnestly
perhaps than she intended.
~! Oh, I'm safe. | was born there,
you know, and those two were not. feel
as 1t ] were expected to raise IL up, and II
you. my friends. will campithere this sum-
mer and invite me TO spend day with you
will disinter II Ia your presence, and
yours shall be the fret eyes to see-whatY"
Buried treas ure." suggested Paul.
Such is our tradition. Ah. if it might
bel il were only sure Of modest COM
petence!" and Franks eyes, gazing into
Maude's spoke such volumes that Mrs.
Wallace felt obliged 10 raise her coffee. cup
quickly to her mouth to hide her smiles
Frank Munroe was an uncommonly fine
physician and did not lack patients, but
they were mostly those who were able to
pay him only in heartfelt blessings. He
loved Maude Wallace. the younger sister
OF former college mate, with all his
honest heart. and 80 loving her he mag.
ni6ed her worth until he persuaded him.
self that no one but Cresus was suitable
to ask her in marriage.
As for Maude herself, the girl had not
one particle of mercenary feeling in her
whole makeup; but she too was 30 deeply
wounded by Cupid that she had not the
strength TO give Frank the encouragement
she would fain have him possess.
And so IL came about that the whole
Wallace family. including Ponto and Car.
10 and Tabby and Aunt Maud, re.opened
the Starbird house one bright July day.
II was not yet ancient enough TO be much
out of repair. and as there was good sup.
ply Of furniture, even to linen sheets and
damask table-cloths, quantity ornamented
china and queer glass tumblers of q sea-
green hue, the ladies' voted their present
camp" vastly superior to the tents they
had occupied two preceding summers.
There were even few hens, rooster,
three or four geese and lazy pig on the
premises.
Mira. Wallace felt 40 grateful to Frank
for bis generosity land shall confess itp
so anxious to make match between this
sterling young doctor and her pretty sis-
ter.in-law) that she managed to coax him
into promising to spend whole fortnight
with her.
At last Mrs. Wallace and Maude screwed
up their courage into consenting to be
witnesses Of Franks hardihood in trying
to remove the big door.stone.
1t was broad granite slab. about six
feet long by four broad and from ten TO
eighteen inches thick. la the center II
was slightly followed by the tread of
many feet, feet now vanished into crumb-
ling dust.
Instead of trying to remove this mass
with a crowbar," said Frank, after he and
Paul had studied il attentively. ~ think
will dig around it and so topple it over on
one side. So here goes
Frank stuck his spade boldly into the
grass-grown earth; the two women held
their breath and each clutched the others
hand with convusive grip.
The first spade-full of earth was tossed
aside; no calamity befell the digger; An.
other followed il. and yet another: and
then with sighs of relief the anxious
watchers drew nearer to him.
"Your entailed property seems TO be Ia.
ble.shaPed,'" suggested Paul, as Franks
spade struck rock few inches under the
stone, no matter on which side he dug.
"Yes, and IL l. stick to one side and dig
q sort Of french, ! fancy / can topple it
over on its back" replied Frank.
Pretty soon he succeeded in doing so,
and az the stone fell oyer they saw that it
was shaped very much like Hat mush-
room. On the bottom of the support-the
stem OF the mushroom-was an irregular
circle of cement; surely something was
sealed mp in it.
The cement had not been of the best and
q little effort loosened 1t; then the detain-
ing stone the stopper one might call it
fell out.
"O-h," was the simultaneous exclama.
ton which went up from all present.
Disclosed to view in the flooding sun.
light lay quantity of gold conins. moldy
and diney 1t 10 true, but good golden coins
Of Spanish, French and English money,
amounting altogether to over SIX thous.
and dollars, NJ later examination
showed.
There was also packet, damp and with
An earthly odor, of thick leather tied. sscure-
ly abo1t with faded ribbon. Frank
opened It carefully and found within it q