The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-04-14

Harris had surveyors tapeline In
his pocket. He threw the reel end
down, holding fast to the other:
"Catch hold of that" he cried. "Easy!
Don't break it. It will help you to keep
your head above water till we can get a
line from the launch" He sent Pablo
off on run to fetch the line.
Some minutes elapsed before it could
be brought, and meantime Mike had to
support as little of his weight as pos
sible by the tape which Harris held,
and barely kept his head and neck
above the cold well water, like bull
frog at the margin of tank.
Van Week then tied loop in the
end of the launch-line and lowered it.
"Now get your foot in that loop, Mike,
and then seize hold above, and we will
pull you out!" Harris called down to
him.
The combined strength of the three
barely suficed to haul the Irishman up.
Foot by foot they hoisted him. dripping
and trying to aid them by catching
toe-hold and fnger-hold here and there
in chinks OF the old masonry. The
we'll had been lined up with stone
blocks. in cement.
| They had him within few feet of
the top when his toe dislodged one of
the stone blocks and it fell down with
a splash. But the next moment Mike
got his arms out and was dragged forth,
a very wet and Shiny object.
"Bad cess to the haythen that leaves
their wells uncovered" were his first
words. But something about the hole
in the wall from which the stone block
had slipped appeared to interest him,
for all dripping as he was, he got down
on his knees and looked down att.
''I'm thinkin' that was very quare
hole," he said to Harris. 'D'ye know, I
fancied caught the CLINT of bottle as
| passed that hole, sor.'
Harris and Van Week laughed, think
ing this hint that Mike desired some
thing to warm him up. But he was not
joking.
"Sure, I can see the nose av it now!"
he exclaimed. 'Wait bit, while put
me fut in the moose av the rope again.
and thin hould on tight while, 1 take a
peep down.
They let him down few feet, when
he drew out from the hole in the we'll
wall large, square h ouldered bottle
of very clumsy shape.
II have it," cried. Mike, and they
pulled him out again. "And now did
yez ever see the likes, of that for a
| h04 1o 7c;r f7io1 HIT
the ould stopper is no better than punk.
What do ye make of it, sor?'' he asked,
and handed it, to Harris.
The bottle was a lopsided affair of
impure green glass, and contained what
looked through the glass like small
bullets. Harris picked out the stopper,
which was of wood wrapped in crum-
bling leather. Some moments were
required to extract it. To their great
surprise, the round, bullet-like objects
proved to be large pearls, some of them
very beautiful. There were 149 of
| them.
Van Week, who had seen jewels and
pearls in Holland, was of the opinion
that they were Of great value.
Their first thought, after looking at
the contents Of the bottle, was to
search the hole in the wall for further
trea sure. But they found nothing ex-
cept small, moldering box with sill
yer crockets at the corners. This be-
ing opened, was found to contain dis
colored parchments, evidently of the
nature of royal LETTERS or deeds of gift
| al l.
dred Spanish gold coins of apparently
about the weight and value of a
doubloon.
''Well, Mike, this is your fnd," Har-
ris said to him. Il congratulate you
Faith, then, how wud I hev found it
if yez hadn't pulled me out of the ould
we'll? Tell me that. SORT" exclaimed
Mike.
''W:hat is your idea, then?" Harris
asked him.
"share and share alike, sor. There
wud be no other fair way"
"Including Pablo?"
'Sure! Didn't the nayger help pull
me out %
They steamed back to the city and
showed the pearls to dealer There
The man was astonished at the size
and beauty of many of them, and
would not say what he thought they
were worth. An English dealer at
length rated the market value at
$780, or not far from $16,55O.
They had little doubt that this bot
tie of pearls and the box had been con-
cealed in the we'll at the time when the
city was taken by the pirates, more
than two centuries ago, and that the
person who secreted them had persisted
in the sack of the town. There could
be no hope, therefore, of finding the
rightful possessors.
It will not be thought strange that
the three canal guards went again and
again to the ruins of Panama Vieio.
searching for other old wells, and
sounding them with grapple-hooks in
the hope of finding other similar caches
of oldttime wealth; but they found
nothing more.-Youth's Companion.
Too Much for the Elephant.
One of the chief features of the cir
Gus which had struck town was an ele-
plant which, it was claimed, could play