The daily morning Alaskan., 1901-01-16

whole cabin was In a blaze. Without trying to save the vessel they rushed to the single boat remaining, leaving one man dead in the companionway and another severely wounded on deck. Thus all the stores and tools were burned, together with the poor wound ed wretch on deck.
 The next morning a party set out to explore the island and soon found simple minded old German on the op- posite side who lived all by himself Q sort of Robinson Crusoe life-tilled a little soil and kept a couple of fishing boats. That night some of the more desperate spirits of the party proposed that they should steal one of the old Germans boats, sail to the mainland, seize a small vessel and bring it back to the island with more provisions and tools.
 The carpenter and the sailor who had joined him the night before tried to dissuade them from putting the plan into execution, but they persisted and sailed away the next day.
 Tn about two weeks the sailboat hove in sight and when she was beach ed an emaciated, wounded wretch crawled out, the sole survivor of the crew that had sailed away so confi- dently two weeks before.
 Before he died he told how the ras- calls had succeeded in reaching the coast safely and with little difficulty had found a small vessel suited to their purpose.
 They tried to get away with 1t in the night, but the owner discovered them and attempted to interfere, with the result that he paid for his vigilance with knife slash which settled him in a minute. But the pirates did not get far away before they were overhauled, taken back to port, and every one of them was hanged, except the teller of the tale, who had escaped, but had been mortally wounded In doing so.
 The carpenter and the sailor pros pected daily about the ravine and the beach: but, having nothing except their knives with which to work, they made little progress. Still they picked out of the crevices considerable amount of gold.
 One day they borrowed hatchet from the old German and penetrated the ravlne which ran up the side of one of the mountains. Some distance up | the slope they cleared the underbrush and found the ledge to be composed of soft rotten stone impregnated with | gold In large quantities. In fact, the entire mountain seemed to be streaked with the precious metal.
 As they worked. however their lives were in constant danger. for the noun tain side seemed to be alive with poi sonous reptiles, scorpions. tarantulas- in fact, owing to these pests, they were faln to give up all attempts to pene- trate farther and contented themselves with working about the foot of the mountain They remained on this Is land nearly two months before they were taken off by passing vessel which stopped to fill her water casks.
 Shortly after their return to the 18th mus the sailor was taken down with 1 Isthmus fever and died. The carpen 1 ter then took the gold and, keeping his secret. set sail for his home. where he bought hotel. He intended some time to return to the island. but one winter day he fell the ice, receiving an in ] jury that resulted in paralysis, and a | year later he also died. But before he 1 did so he told to a friend who had nursed him ,N' the details of his strange adventures in the southern Pacific i drew a plan of the island. described its location and topography and gave such an accurate description that any one familiar with the coast could have nc difficulty in verifying the statement.
 The carpenters friend did not sur vive him long, but before he died he likewise related the carpenters story to a captain who was familiar with the waters of the southern Pacific. And | now another expedition has been fitted out for the mysterious Isle of gold.
 But wiseacres shook their heads. and already a belief has grown among the | timid that curse is associated with the isle and the treasure and that death and doom inevitably follow the pursuit of the secret.-Chicago Times Herald.