The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-13

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family at the above address voa t1n MS
morning his wife arose early ana tudy
ing the children with her, went off To soo.,
the day with relatives in KensJn spend
Geoghan slept rather late. He bad t' un.
hnisned eating his breakfast. vben ' tk
uooI -peiI rang. short and very slender
man. with black side whiskers and a ~.
in one eye, was standing on tho 49,
Wnen Geoghan answered the bell
Il beg your pardon" said the stra,,,..
out now long have you lived here?" "Tt,li
De Two years, come Chewsday week " -
piled Geoghan. "Ah! You don't miami
any vegetables or anything in your baek
ydru' 40 you No, sir" And have
you never noticed anything strange abo,,t
your back yard?" NO." said Geoqban
Then he grew a bit suspicious ana y.
demanded: Say, what's all this to vo, y;
ITS nothing to me yet" replied the other
with significant wink, but it NAV mean
a great deal to me later, and it NAV mean
money in your pocket" Geoghan Looked
mystiied and still a little bit suspicioIs
LOOK here, Mr-whateVer your mama
isl will be frank and candid with Won ="
said the stranger. Il confess that I at
tempted to get into your back yard for a
purpose of my own on Friday night but
your dog scared me off. Now. if Won
can keep secret, and agree to give me
half of the money to be made, 1 will guar
hands. l can't say how much you will
get, but it should be at least thousand
dollars"
Come inside and let's hear what YOU
have got to say" said Geoghan. The two
men went back into the kitchen.
Now" said the little man, after ex-
acting from Geoghan his promise to share
equally all the money that might come
to him through his aid, ~ will explain
myself as briefly as possible. Several
months ago l bought an old house near
Nineteenth and Miff1in streets. In renovat-
ing the house a few weeks ago / found
among some old papers this curious doc
ument See what you can make of it,"
The speaker drew from his pocket small
sheet of paper, soiled and yellow with
age, and handed it over to Geoghan. 1t
read thus:
''Xebt p, 1s63-Zebo zmbt $50 rmjpk
ntzcg ymbtk lmftjb Ojccytp mddzt. lit
atmkejt 81 uttl pet kcelw m wtmjI
kwmdtp kicbt pqv."
Geoghan wrinkled his brows over the
thing. Let me explain it to you," said
the stranger finally. IT'S cipher and
very simple one 1t took me only few
hours to solve it, for / used to make such
things myself when l was young. Now,
you notice the solitary letter m near the
end. There is only one letter in the Eng
lish language that can stand alone and
equivalent of "a here.
Again it is well known that the letter
most frequently used in ordinary writing
is e. You see that the letter t. occurs
in the cipher nineteen times, which is
much oftener than any other letter So,
Vt is evidently e. The figures 2l, 1862
in the beginning are evidently part of
date, and they stand in their proper shape.
By degrees l worked the thing out until
found the solution to be like this"
He produced a piece of clean, new pa
per, upon which we're written:
June q, 1S63-Long Lane $50 yards be-
low Kane's tavern. Crooked apple tree.
Measure 81 feet due southwest. A heart
shaped stone. Dig"
Geoghan was interested ut Is very
plain to me-" the little man continued,
that this cipher was made as a memo
randum by man who had buried some
thing valuable which he afterwards in
tended to dig up again. About June q,
1858, there was a big scare here over the
approach of Lees army to the Pennsyl-
Vania border. The writer of this cipher
undoubtedly buried his treasure for safe
keeping, and that he never dug it up again
is sufficiently proven by the fact that the
cipher was still treasured among the
mans papers.
Now, l have found that Kane's old
tavern stood just $50 yards up the road.
and in front of your house the crooked
stump of an apple tree still stands.
line drawn 81 feet due southwest from
that point brings us to about the center
of the grass plot in your yard There
you are. Now what do you Think
Geoghan, who had grown quite excited
during the strangers recital, jumped up
and said: well dig in the yard ol
course" Mind, get half" said the III,
tie man. "All right" cried Geoghan, ana
he took a spade from the kitchen anu
went out in the yard. He dug energeu-
cally in the center of the grass plot ior
fifteen minutes or more, while the little
man excitedly paved over the dirt as II
was thrown up. Suddenly he uttered d
shout Of JOY, and held up a silver quar-
ter, covered with dirt, and bearing lle
date 1858.
IT'S there, it's therep' he cried. keep
on digging. I'm going up the street to 90.
another spade to help you" GeognSh
worked with increased vigor, while ny
other man ran through the kitchen. Inv
treasure-seeker in the yard toiled on lor
nearly 20 minutes. He found no NOR
coins, and he began to grow weary h9
wondered why the other man remalneo
away so long. He went into the houso
to look for him. He found the pdlIV
furniture all upset. Rushing upstairs ~
discovered even greater confusion thei..
Bureau drawers were turned out upon
the floor. gold watch, some su1sa
spoons and several other articles We
missing Pinned to the top Of the bureau
was note II read: II have taken lny
share OF the treasure. leave the turh'I
ture to you" ..,
Geoghan was so overcome that he dia"
notify the police until late last night
--Tommy-Paw, what is human natuiI