The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-09
4 MADMAN'S SEARCH.
RI Il d. LEWIS.

wo verifying at Singapore in the
rio Aibatross, waiting to take ON a
sow tons of freight for Liverpool.
..,sn AZ American named james
Granger came aboard. He was a
man in the prime Of life, tall, stout
and handsome, and he had q person.
a. magnetism beyond any man /
aver met. His business was with the
oontain at first, and he had q singu-
lar story to tell.
Ho was a New York shipowner.
ia said, and had taken a trip to
China and Japan in one of his own
,pssels--a brig called the Red King
for the benefit of his health. She
! had been cast away several months
1 before j II the China sea, and all
hands lost save himself. He man
ooed to reach a small island, and
1 after two weeks was taken off by q
native craft and transferred to an
English merchantmen.
Apart of the island was sterile and
rocky, and amid the rocks he ono
| ,lay found n robbers cave. There
we're, he contended, thousands of
! Yards of silk and other valuable fab
] RIGS, boxes of pearls, chests of jew
i eIry and kegs of coin. He had count
/ ed out $500, 600 in gold without
counting it all, and he roughly esti-
mated his find to be worth 81, 000,-
4 600.
Ho was sure that the stuff had
been hidden away for long years,
/ and he discovered that portions had
been taken from vessels which had
mysteriously disappeared in the
4 China sea years before. 1t was the
I cavo of n band of Chinese pirates,
4 and the entire band had been lost or
i captured at sea. lie had with him
Z two pearls, a diamond ring and sew
! eral gold coins as proof of his state
z ucnts.
What Granger wanted was to char
ter a ship to fetch away the troas-
4 uro, and he had boarded us because
! he had hoard that we were to dis
& charge cargo at Singapore and re-
load for Bombay. He talked with
= our captain fer two hours, and then
a the chief mate was called into the
4 cabin.
The story was all gone over again,
and then l was called down. No
man could tell a more plausible
story, nor could any one have de-
handed better proofs. The only
weak point vas that he was no mar
= inaer and could not iucute mis- island
that is, we knew there was no such
i island as he described within 200
miles of the spot where he insisted
4 it was.
Had u captain been free to char
ter | think he would have taken
chances. Had the chief officer not
been impatient to get homo and
i marry and take command of q shin
Z I am sure lis would have l,een ready
to sail a craft to the island. AS nei-
Their would go, Granger turned to
. ME. il IL captain would release
me, | was free &c go, and as I under
j stood navigation he need have no
fear that I would hit the spot aimed
j for.
Sailors hear a good many yarns
about buried treasure and pirates
caves, and I was not ready to give an
q answer offhand. agreed to let
Granger have my decision next day
alnd he went away after swearing lis
all to silence. Then t. . three of us
went ovor his story III detail to try
and satisfy ourselves. The result
vas that the captain said:
Y We'll, it is the straightest story
ever heard from a castaway, and if
you want to go with him I'll release
you. If yon get the treasure, ycu
4 can quit the sea; if not, you will not
nave lost so very much"
= Next day I gave Granger my de.
clsion and went ashore with him. I
q tonnd that he had plenty OF money
8 and was in good standing with ba,si-
ness mel He went to more pains
'aan | demanded to prove his iden-
MY, and he insisted on n written
contract that I was to have a gener-
Gus share of the treasure. In the
course of a week l got hold of a
schooner which was for charter and
Ten days later had fitted her out for
Tue voyage. / saw Mr.. Granger two
Or three times a day during this time
sa" grew to respect him very much.
de seemed to me to be a very thor
n oush business man and was well
spoken Of by ALI It was given out
mat our object was to search for
]o'ller survivors who might have es-
capped, and as there happened to be
d surplua Of Gamer at Singapore
Just then I had no trouble in secur.
3,as a crew of first class men-all
s English speaking.
81 We cleared for q port in japan
q .nd got away with 9 fair wind and
curing the two weeks it took lis to
~ work In IN Tho 1ooo1skrr of fNco~vc~Sa