The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-05

80, tnere was the question OF pay
ment: absurd as it seemed, with all
John Cams money almost in his
hands, Cecil was obliged to worry
and bother and lie and intrigue for
weeks together in order to get that
paltry little sum in hard cash for the
matter of payment. Still, he raised
it in the end: raised it by inducing
Ethel to sell out the remainder of
her poor small fortune, and cabling
Aunt Emily into putting her name to
a bill of sale for her few worthless
bits of old fashioned furniture. At
last, after many delays and vexatious
troubles, Cecil found himself the &C
tual possessor of the corner of land
wherein lay buried John CAMS
treasure.
The very first day that Cecil Nit
ford could call that coveted piece of
ground his own, he could not re-
strain his eagerness Though he knew
it was imprudent in land where the
unjust law of treasure rove prevails),
but he must then and there begin
covertly digging under the shadow
of the three big willow trees, in the
bend of the river. He had eyed and
measured the bearing SO carefully al
ready that he knew the very spot to
nails breadth where John CAMS
treasure was actually hidden. He
set to work digging with a little pick
as confidently as If he had already
seen the doubloonslying there in the
strong box that he knew enclosed
them. Four feet deep he dug, as
John Cams instructions told him !;
struck against solid oaken box, we'll
secured with clamps OF iron. Cecil
cleared all the dirt away from the
top, carefully, not hurriedly, and
tried with all his might to lift the
|
too heavy, of course, for one man s
arms to raise: all that weight of gold
and silver must be ever so much
more than single pair of hands
could possibly manage. He must try
to open the lid alone, SO as to take
the gold out, bit at a time, and
carry it away with him now and
again, as he was able, covering the
place up carefully in between, for
fear of the Treasury and the Lord of
the Manor. How abominably unjust
it seemed to him at that moment
the legal claim of those two INDECENT
J hostile powers to think that after he,
Cecil Milford, had borne the brunt of
the labor in adventurously hunting
up the whole trail of John Cams Sc
cret, two idle irresponsible participa
tors should come in at the end, if
they could, to profit entirely by his
ingenuity and his exertions.
At last, by great effort, he forced
the rusty lock open, and looked
eagerly into the strong oak chest.
How his heart beat with slow, deep
throbs at that supreme moment, not
with suspense, for he knew he should
find the money, but with the final
realization Of a great hope long de-
| ferredl Yes, there it lay, in very
truth, all before him-great shining
coins of old Spanish gold-gold,
gold, gold, arranged in long rows,
one coin after another, over the
whole surface of the broad oak box.
He had found it, he had found it, he
had really found it After so much
toilsome hunting, after so much vain
endeavor, after SO many heart-break-
ing disappointments, John CAMS
treasure in very truth lay open there
actually before himl
For a few minutes, eager and
| lIIkuI6u6Q dS AO was SCCll hlIlOTQ
did not dare even to touch the prec-
ious pieces. In the greatness of his
Joy, in the fierce rush of his over
towering emotions, he had no time
to think of mere base everyday gold
and silver. 1t was the future and
the ideal that he beheld, not the
piled-up heaps of filthy lucre. Ethel
was his, wealth was his, honor was
his He would be rich man and
great man now and henceforth for
everl Oh, how he Rugged himself
in his heart on the wise successful
fraud by which he had induced Ethel
to advance him the few wretched
hundreds he needed for his ever
memorable Jamaican journeyl How
he praised to himself his own cour-
age, and ingenuity, and determine
ton, and inexhaustible patiencel
How he laughed down that foolish
conscience of his that would fain
have dissuaded him from his master
stroke of genius. He deserved it all.
he deserved it ALL Other men would