Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-03-02

| the cOuLIHeUC anu 1cuO II 20 me, To-
gether with his name. Then shall
find a ship sailing under a neutral flag
and take passage in her to some
neutral port, whence shall travel to
| Gex, and by hook or crook unearth the
chevalier's hoard and bring it to Eng
land"
ooh, Mark, cannot let you.run into
fresh dangers! you have rislked your life
too often already" intefposed Antoi-
nette. ''Never mind the treasure We
can do without it. With these diamonds
and your half-pay we shall have
| enough"
1.-THE risk will be inappreciable
shall not go within two or three hum
dred miles of Paris, and with my smoked
glasses, my altered appearance, my
borrowed name, and my American pa
pers, cannot be recognized even in the
improbable event of my meeting any
body / have met before. While as for
| money, it is not merely question of
having the wherewithal to keep us, but
of providing handsomely for your moth
er, making my father happy, and find
ing me something to do; for do not
think I shall ever see well enough to
commission ship. And you must ac
knowledge, Antoinette, that raising
corn and tobacco in Virginia and play
ing the part of country gentleman
will be good deal less risky than COM
handing a man-of-war and fighting the
French"
My scheme met with the warm ap-
prevail OF our elders, especially of my
father; and Antoinette was constrained
to withdraw her opposition, making it,
however, a condition sine qua non that
should not start on my journey until
] could see without difficulty and my
health was fully restored.
For the next three months ! had a
very good time. My father and mother
made much of me. I received flatter-
ing letters from several distinguished
people, also many invitations which l
was forced to decline, and, better still,
Antoinette came to see me nearly every
day, read to me and led me about, and
when l was promoted to smoked spec
tacles l led her about.
In the meantime we sold two Of the
brilliants. They produced upwards of
two thousand pounds, five hundred of
which I laid aside for the expenses of
my journey, and invested the balance in
government stock in the names of Nine.
de Gex and her daughter.
When was pronounced and felt eft"
took passage for myself and Jenkins
in a Liverpool packet bound for New
York, where we arrived after an I'M
eventful voyage. I stayed there only
long enough to obtain the papers of
| which had come in quest. A citizen of
Scottish origin, whose general appear
ance bore superficial resemblance to my
| own lin those days passports contained
description Of their owners). was
good enough, in return for a ffty-dol-
lar bill, to lend me his name, procure
me a passport, and obtain me the vises
of the consuls of the countries which I
proposed to visit. Meanwhile, / had
engaged berths for myself archibald
McNab) and servant in the clipper
Saucy Sal, bound for Bremen, where
we landed precisely eighty days after
leaving Liverpool.
From Bremen we travelled by way of
Hanover, Frankfort, Stuttgart and
Zurich to Berne, thence to Gex, which
lies in romantic valley of the Jura
mountains, not far from the Swiss Dor
der.
village inn and exhibiting my papers at
the local police office, made visit to
the chateau (which was fast falling into
ruins) and its new owner, of whom I
asked such questions as would natu-
rally occur to a curious traveller. From
his answers ! felt sure that he had
neither found the hoard nor suspected
it's existence. After explaining that /
intended to remain in the neighbor-
hood for few months, for the benefit of
my health, inquired on what terms he
would allow me to turn a corner OF it
into a temporary dwelling. A typical
French peasant of the period, he was
too stolid to show surprise; but he knew
how to open his mouth.
''Give me five hundred francs" he said,
land you may do what you like with
the old barrack."
As it would have been impolitic to &C
cedc too readily to his demand, bar
gained him down to four hundred,
which was probably four times as much
as he expected.
The next day engaged carpenter.
q mason and several laborers to clean,
repair, and render as habitable as might
be two of the least delapidated rooms.
When the work was done bought some
cheap furniture and fitted thither with
Jenkins and my goods and chattels.
Jacques Bonhomme, the peasant pro-
prietor, supplied US with eggs, milk,
butter and poultry his wife did our
chores; and while we made as if we had
nothing to do but hunt, fish, stroll
about and amuse ourselves, we were at |
tending strictly to our business.
The hoard was hidden in a vault
under the old chapel, where in former |
times defunct De Gexes were wont to |
be buried. The sole entrance to it was |
covered by large slab, the position of
which was shown on the plan given to |
me by the chevalier.
Choosing night when we were least |
likely to be disturbed, we lifted the |
flag and descended into the vault. 1t
was hideous place, full of collins and
bones, and we stayed no longer than
was necessary to satisfy ourselves that |
the treasure was there and intact.
There was much more of it in bulk
(whatever there might be in value) than
expected, and it became question
how to get it safely away. We had
arrived with two trunks, and, if we de-
parted with six, suspicious might be
raised that would be fatal to our enter
priso