The Democratic advocate., 1900-06-30
geleft Story.
THE SPANISH GOLD.
A Story of the Lost Treasure Ship
James Murphy, in the New Era.

a place as it was to make home IN
Grey and DID, torm-beaten; with deep
creyices, into which you could put your
hand, between its huge stones, and quaint
nooks in high eave-courses, in which the
wandering swallows in summer time built
their nests, as one might see by the straws
and moss that peeped thereout; 1t was
about as unlikely spot as anyone not al
tooether demented would be expected to
select for habitation. There was nothing
standing but the bare walls; and how thick
and strong they were =,
Local history and tradition had alike
failed to tell its story; it had been rooiess
and ruined for longer than the fathers and
grandfathers of the present generation
could remember; and was likely to remain
so till the lapsing ages should make its
walls crumble on the precipice they sur
mounted, and cause them to topple over
into the sea. Not, indeed, that they could
fall right into the sea, save when the WIN
fer winds send the great rolling waves OF
the Atlantic inwards and swept them, leap
ing and surging, to the base of the cliffs.
At such time they would, no doubt, II
they gave way, descend into the sea, but
at other periods they would simply fall on
a small strand, crescent-shaped, of the
finest sand, as white as flour; or, other
wise, ON the great beams and timbers pro
truding with uncouth prominence through
1.-THE relics of great vessel that some
time in the past had been wrecked by the
pitiless sea and driven in there.
II must have been ship OF no ordinary
Kind that was thus driven i'll and wrecked,
for its gigantic beams were TOO unwieidy
for anv vessels that our island had ever
seen. Moreover, they were fastened and
clamped with iron and copper bolts ana
nuts to degree, and in themselves were
black and hard; so much SO, indeed, that
they remained there for generations un-
touched by the inhabitants, who would
rather do without firing than go to the
trouble of cutting them up. when 1t
came there? Who manned it? When
it sailed the seas? What nation $ flag 1t
bore aloft ? were all things that the great
advancing wave of time had buried
AWAY and hidden out of sight. And, for
aught one could see of decay about them,
they were likely to last as long as the old
castle itself. But a change came over
them and the surroundings quite unex-
pectedly; and this brings me back to the
commencement of my story.
He was a small, withered, black look
inc little man. l remember very well
when I first saw him-standing at the
door of the old castle, looking down on
tbe strand and over the sea, and taking
note generally of the place. He might
be sixty years of age, or only forty, from
what anyone could judge by his appear
ance. And the gibberish he spoke 1t
was enough to make all the neighbors
laugh when they heard it, Much he
cared about their laughing He ordered
in timber, got local carpenter to help
him. and soon had portion of the old
castle rooted in. Had two or three rooms
made in it, too, quite comfortable-thoush
it was the wonder of everybody what Il
single man, and stranger to boot, wanted
SO many for And then it became ru-
mored that he had taken lease of the
nlace from Lord Clare, as if he were going to
live in it forever Knowing people shook
there heads and said ''Wait until WIN
ter; wait until the storms come from the
west and the great Atlantic waves roll in,
and see how long he will remain in it J!
.What was he going to do with 1t
What was he going to do with himself
How was he going to live ? were ques-
tions constantly asked, Not asked oil
him-people were too much afraid OF HIN
to do that-but of one another.
They were very soon answered lie
began boat-building. If he had begun tt
build another Noah's Ark, people would
not have been one whit more surprised
The only boats used along our portion o
the Irish coast were corraghs, which ger,
merely slight framework of timber GOV
cred over with hides Of kline Nothin:
else would live in the stormy and tumbin!
seas that surrounded us. Who was goin:
to buy his boats when made, or wher
were they to be used ? And then peopl
shook their heads and laughed more con
sumedly than before But quite needles
of what anyone said or thought, the ney
arrival kept straight and steady at hi
work.
1t was not the least curious thing abou
him that he should try to work up tn
huge beams of the sand covered wrec
into materials for his trade 1t was quit
of piece with all his oddities and thos
who laughed at him before pitied now, 70
they considered him thoroughly demented
The Mad Spaniard- should have told yo
that he came from SPAIN don't kno,
how we CHANGED to know it, but we did
the Spania, or Mad Spaniard, as he wa
called, soon came to be spoken of far an
near, and people would wander to tn
place Sunday after Sunday, when the
had time. to look at the progress the ne'
trade was making and at the boat -hnilde
himself
But they had soon something else
talk about, when one summers evenin
they found that another had joined him
young girl. How she came there, c
when she had come, no one knew or coul
tell; but there she was, walking with him
If the boat-builder was old and withere
and grizzly, the newcomer was fresh an
soft and sweet as the May flowers GROWN
in the valleys hard by, Slender and ele
CANT, with a face singularly sweet an
winsome-though its dark olive color cor
trasted curiously with the fresh and whit
of our island girls and with a pair of dar
eyes, out of which shot CLEANS of ligf
brighter than the brightest sunshine whe
she smiled. She was the very perfectio
of gentle and blooming girlhood. He
step was so light it would scarcely ben
the flower on the hillside, and her slende
form put to shame the most graceful {
our island lassies; though can tell you
looking back at it now after the lapse Z
some fifty years, there were some anon