Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-05
TANKS LUCK.
rCopyright, 1895. |

AANOA oOebt5y tO NAAttu SAty 6hHu Cu. AOuAS HIS catch of fish, doing quite good business | in the season. |
 That fact is perhaps of little interest to | anybody but himself, however, and is only | incidentally mentioned as the basis of cir l cumstance out of which grew a very sim | gular illustration of the queer ways Dame | Fortune sometimes takes to befriend man when she is in a good humor.
 Tank deserved credit for going out "jug- l ging" one particular morning three or four years after the war, for he went | through 8 sense of duty-to get some cat | fish he had promised to send down to an Alton hetel-when he didn't feel a bit like | doing that or anything else but sleep. He had been "sitting up' very late the night before with Almira Lightfoot, doing his best to win her reluctant consent to be- coming Mrs. Tank Peert.
 month before he thought he had her safe enough, but the storekeeper at the crossroads had not then brought down his wife's brother, Bob Mather, from Chicago, to clerk for him.
 Bob was drossy, good looking, spright- ly young fellow, Ia right smart, clever chap" as Tank fairly recognized, and in all probability not at all responsible for Almira's wayward fancy, but the fact ex- isted, all the same, that since his advent she had grown cold to her former lover. The question that worried Tank and kept him from sleeping when he got home that night was whether it would be altogether just or quite polite to "lam the life out n Bob." He had not yet determined it when gray dawn appeared, and, hopeless of rest, he arose and went out on the river with his "jugging" outfit.
 Padding to favorite bend where the current was sluggish, he set afloat a dozen gallon jugs, empty and tightly corked, to the handle of each of which was attached a short line carrying big hook baited with pork, and as they slowly drifted down the stream he floated with them. The fish did not seem to be hungry, for in long time no jug bobbed. Tho sun was hot and Tank dropped into doze.
 Suddenly he awoke to find four of the jugs performing violent antics, darting aimlessly to and fro, or making frantic efforts, seemingly, to get beneath the sur face. One sailed off down stream, like racer, a second went skittering away to- ward the Illinois shore and the others ap- peared to be struggling to effect a mutual smash. The fish down below were not only hungry now, but active. Naturally Tank addressed himself to tho two fighting jugs first. Leaning too far over the edge of his light skiff to catch the lines holding the fish and being only half awake physically
 
 foremost deep down in the river.
 When he arose to the surface the skiff was some yards away in the swifter cur rent of the channel and going much too fast for him to overtake, since he was not Q particularly good swimmer. Giving it up with a broadly comprehensive anathe- ma upon things in general, he turned to swim ashore and was dismayed at seeing how far out he had drifted.
 IJo IoS I,,ax hut ic came hard and painting, his water soaked clothing was dragging him down, and he realized that he was in great danger of drowning. He tried floating on his back, but was overweighted by his clothes and boots Then he lost his head and began splashing excitedly and ineffectively, sec ing nothing and already taking in great gulps of water. A few seconds more of those proceedings would have finished him.
 but just then something hard hit him rudo jolt on the shoulder. By an instinc-
 tive effort he threw his arm over it, found himself supported and began to regain his senses.
 For several minutes he did not venture to do anything moro than hold on and breathe Then he put a little more effort into the arm grasping tho object support ing him, drew himself up facing it and looked to sec what had saved him. The sight of it so shocked him that he came near letting go again and sinking. It was D coffin
 For the moment Tanks mind was not quite clear as to whether he was really floating alongside a coffin or was already drowned and inside the grewSome box.
 Luckily for him, his muscles held on though his brain let go and in a few mo- ments moro he grow able to think Then he understood the situation and realized that it was not so extraordinary after all.
 Tho Missouri river amuscs itself by con- stantly eating away its banks on one side and depositing them on tho other, shift
 ing its channel that old pilots declare the only safe rule for navigating it is to ''go one season where you couldn't go the sea- son before" In this process of erosion it often carries away graveyards, tfle collins from which generally sink before floating far. But this one, Tank noticed, rode high, as if it wero sound, water tight and lightly ladon. Somehow an impression gained upon him that it was untenanted He managed to climb aboard, and with leg dangling on each sido Scered it to low sand bar, where by good luck his skif had already stranded. Having his boat, he felt himself master of the situation, and with fully regained confidence and the aid of q hatchet that he carried in the skiff to kill catfish proceeded to investigate his mys- terious raft. It had been carefully calked, it's joints filled with tar, its screw heads
 sunk and puttied, its outside coated heavily with thick paint. Prudent men have had
 themselves buried in asbestus- collins, but such precautions against damage by water seemed extraordinary. With excited hope though he did not know what he hoped
 for-Tank wiclded his hatchet.
 He found, carefully wrapped in paper | and securely packed two armfuls of solid silverware and bag containing over $1,-
 900 in gold coinl Neither upon the silver,
 nor the paper, nor anywhere else, was there any mark of ownership. Doubtless the treasure had been buried somewhere | up the river by some ono hopeful of secret ing it from the hazard of war years before. Tank found no difficulty in disposing of | the silyerware in St. Louis for sum he
 never precisely stated, though more, as he | admitted, than the amount of coin he had ! found-enough at all events to establish him in popular recognition as very solid
 citizen. And Almira Lightfoot. contem- plating him from that point of view, read | fly perceived that she had, all the time, ! thought much more of him than of Bob Mather and was quite willing to become his wife. ALBERT SwAYNE. Saw Nothing In It.