Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-09-02


ously was the entire absence of life or
the island. There was neither anima
nor bird, reptile nor insect. There
should have been a dozen varieties o.
birds and an abundance of insect life
on so fair spot with its tropical eli.
mate, but it was simply tenantless.
And yet there was life there, and
where the castaway least expected.
He had been on the island week OF
SO, and had twice walked clear around
it, when one day as he was gathering
fruit in an open spot he was suddenly
and fiercely attacked by naked man.
The surprise was great, and the Cap
tain had not yet recovered his
strength, but, shaking the man off, he
seized "a club and laid about him SO
vigorously that his assailaut ran away.
1t was white man, and from the
marks on his hands he must have been
sailor. How long he had lived there
and how he reached the island in the
first place are matters for conjecture,
but the fact of his being nude went to
show that he had been there long
enough to wear out his clothes. In
breaking away from the Captain he
ran for the beach. The latter followed
at his heels, shouting for him to stop,
but the unknown ran TO the water,
plunged in, and swan straight out to
sea, looking back now and then and
seeming to be in Il terrible fright. He
held to his course until he could no
lnn l,a q Id
he went to his death, as he did not re-
turn. In a dense thicket the Captain
found a rude shelter which the man
had used, and among the dried grass
forming his bed were few fragments
of cloth, which had once been pea
jacket. There was also sailors pipe
and an empty tobacco box. Living
there alone for years and years, with
neither the note of bird nor the chirp
of cricket to cheer him, the man had
lost his mind, and, looking upon Cap
tain Graham as an intruder, had meant
to take his life.
When the castaway had been n
month on the island without sighting
a sail, he made up his mind that the
fate OF the poor fellow who had dashed
into the sea would some day be his.
Only the surf beating on the shore
and the wind sighing through the trees
broke the maddenlng silence brooding
over the island, and the man shouted
with delight when gale swept out of
the west and blew down scores of trees
about him. He felt that he would
soon lose his mind unless he made
great effort to divert it from the
gloomy situation, and he began q
closer survey of the island. The
centre of it was considerably higher
than elsewhere, and exactly in the
middle was a single tree, surrounded
by thicket which he had never vet
penetrated. In carrying out his ex-
plorations he entered this copse, find
ing hard beaten path, evidently
made by crazy man. Piled up at
the roots of the tree the Captain found
a great stock of small, 1ron-bound
boxes, and it needed but one glance
to satisfy him that they were treasure
boxes. There was the cavity where
they had once been buried, and the
boxes were weather beaten as if long
exposed. Two or three large shells
lay about, which had doubtless been
used to dig out the dirt, and one OF
the boxes had been opened
The Captain shouldered this box
and carried it down to the spot he
called "home," and there inspected
its contents. In contained about $4,000
in gold coin of all nations, but prin-
cipally English, and not u coin among
them was Of recent date. In fact,
there wore some which no longer cir
culated in England or India. From
the material and construction the
Captain judged that the boxes had
been made by a ships carpenter. In
the pile at the lot of the tree were
fifteen other boxes OF the same size.
One was broken open, and its contents
found to be the same as the first, and
the amount very nearly the same.
There was a total, as the Captain
figured, of 500, 600 more or less. This
was based on the supposition that all
the boxes contained gold, but as he
looked into onl y two he could not be
sure of the contents of the others.
How came the treasure there? Cap
tain Graham believed it to be pirates
cache, and that the gold had been
there long years before he was thrown
on the beach. Perhaps the mad sailor
had been one of the pirate crew. 1t
was certain that he had unearthed the
treasure at any rate, and it was hardly
probable that -le stumbled upon it by
accident.
Well, there was big fortune there,
and it belonged to the finder, but it
might have been so much sand for all
the good it could do him. Days and
weeks aad months passed away, and
one day the castawaY counted the peb-
bles he had laid in rows along the
beach to mark the time, and found
that he had been eleven months on the
island. On that day there came furi.
GUS gale from the east, with very
high tide, and from some wreck at sea
the waves brought in vast quantity
L Il. L