Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1890-12-20

all that pertained to the history OF
California, Jenny had in fancy often
sailed the seas in one of those mys-
terious treasure ships that had skirt
ed the cost in bygone days, and she
at once settled in her mind that her
discovery was none other than q
cas- away Philippine galleon. Partly
from her reserve, and partly from q
suddenly conceived plan, she deter
mined to keep its existence as I'M
known to her father, as careful in
quiry on her part had found it was
equally unknown to her neighbors.
For this shy, imaginative young girl
of eighteen had convinced herself
that it might still contain part Of
its old treasure. She would dig for
IL herself without telling anybody.
II she failed no one would know il;
if she were successful, she would sur
prise her father, and perhaps retrieve
their fortune by less vulgar means
than their present toll. Thanks to
the secluded locality, and the fact
that she was known to spend her
leisure moments in wondering there,
she could work without suspicion
Secretly conveying a shovel and q
few tools to the spot the next day,
she set about her prodigious task.
As the upper works were gone, and
the galleon not large, in three weeks,
working an hour or two each day,
she had made a deep excavation in
the stern. She had found many
curious things-the fotsam and jet
sam of previous storms-but as yet,
it is, perhaps, needless to say, not
the treasure.
To-day she was filled with the
vague hope of making her discovery
before Christmas day. To have
been able to take her father some
thing on that day-if only few old
coins-the fruit Of her own unsus-
pected labor and intuition, not the
result Of vulgar barter or mental
wage-would have been complete
happiness. It was, perhaps, some
what visionary expectation for an
educated girl Of eighteen, but am
writing of a young California girl,
who had lived in the fierce glamor OF
treasure hunting, and in whose SEN
sitive individuality some of its subtle
poison had been instilled. Howbeit,
to-day she found nothing. She was
sadly hiding her pick and shovel, as
was her custom, when she discovered
the fresh track of an alien foot in
the sand. Robinson Crusoe was not
more astonished at the savage foot
print than Jenny Miller at this
damning proof of the invasion of her
sacred territory. The footprints
came from and returned to the copse
of shrubs. Some one might have
seen her at work.
! But q singular change in the
/ weather, overlooked in her excite.
ment, here forced itself upon her. A
light film over sea and sky, lifted
only by fitful gusts of wind, seemed
to have suddenly thickened until it
became an Opaque vault, narrowing
in circumference as the wind increas-
ed. The promontory behind her
disappeared, as if swallowed up. the
distance before her seemed to con-
tract; the ocean at her side, the color
of dull pewter, vanished in sheet of
slanting rain, and by the time she
reached the house, half Trimming, half
carried along by the quartering force
of the wind, full gale was blowing,
1t blew all the evening, reaching a
climax and fury at past midnight
that was remembered for many
years along that cost. In the midst
of it they heard the booming of can
non, and then the voices of neighbors
in the road. "There was" said the
voices, ga big steamer ashore just
before the house." The dressed
quickly and ran out.
Hugging the edge of the copse to
breathe and evade the fury of the
wind, they struggled to the sands.
At first looking out to sea the girl
saw nothing but foam. But, follow
ing the direction of a neighbours
arm, for in that wild tumuld man
alone seemed speechless, she saw d.
rectly before her, 50 close upon her
that she could have thrown a pebble
on board, the high bows OF ship.
Indeed, its very nearness gave her
the feeling that it was already saved,
and its occasional heavy roll to lee
ward, drunken, helpless, ludicrous,
but never awful, brought q hysteric
laugh to her lips. But when livid
blue light, lit in the swinging top,
showed q number of black objects
clinging to bulwarks and rigging,
and the sea with languid, heavy
cruelty, pushing, rather than beating
them away, one by one, she knew
that death was there.
The neighbors. her father with the
others, had been running helplessly
to and fro, or covering in groups
against the cops, when suddenly they
uttered a cry-their first-of joyful
welcome. And with that shout, the
man she most despised and hated
Sol Catlin. mounted On "calico'
pnuctono 40 onfro noora and h;za rro