The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-09-24
THE CRYPT.

TIE CRYPT.
The human mind. though busiest
when exchanging ideas in conversation
with others, dives DEEPEST In solitude.
Probably no case was ever profoundly
considered unless the student was
aione, and never 30 profoundly as
when involuntarily-when the mental
faculties are 30 absorbed in contem-
plation Of one subject that diversion
from 1t is as being awakened from
sleep.
/ experienced this truth when-hav-
Ing retired to my room. set down the
lantern. and exchanged my boots for
slippers-I placed my elbows on the
mantelpiece and my head upon my
hands, and stood SO for ! know not
how long. That such was my attitude
for not less than two hours ! am sure
from the interruption which dispelled
my reverie.
1 had emptied my pockets. and all
the money / possessei-six sovereigns
and some odd shillinss-lay before me
ON the nantelpiece. Perhaps II was
the siyht of these few coins which led
me to review my experiences OF the
past twelve days. and to seriously ask
myself for the FIST time before seek
Ing assurance by actual essay. what
were my chances. to find the treasure
which had Teen deposited In the crypt
beneath my fathers house. That the
treasure OF which ! lad that day read
had been disposed Of as described by
my ancestor. l did not for moment
doubt: that such q treasure should be
suffered to rest undisturbed for more
than two hundred years, there were
many reasons to doubt Yet was It
not distinctly asserted by Roger True
man that the treasure was In the Alb
bots Cell in the crypt-that It was TO
remain there until he built hospitai!
Might not the bricked-up arch which
INV aunt Gertrude had noticed when
she went over Holdenhurst Hall be
this same Abbot's Cell alluded to by
my ancestor; and might not the reason
for its being bricked up be to secure tts
contents? And II that were SO. could
Its contents be other than the quarter
of a million Venetian sequins which
had 80 strangely fallen into my ances-
tors possession and been as strangely
bestowed BY him? 1t must be 50. No
one Of my family had ever built or
endowed q hospital-no one OF them
had ever possessed so much money
M a quarter Of a million sequins. un-
less II were this same Roger Trueman;
and had 10 large a SUM Of money been
found in our house and appropriated
by any member Of my family at any
period could not have failed to hear
Of II. Yes; the money must certainly
be there, and / would presently 60 be-
low and look at It, and my father and
I would fetch It upstairs in the morn
ing. Then would my father and In
sist on returning to uncle Sam the
money which he had SO generously
Styen to us; then would ! ask Con-
stance Marsh to become my wife;
then
What a thing ID money-the epitome
of all mems desires! Why. those six
small yellow counters lying on the
shelf before me would buy the hard
daily labor Of an East Anglian giant,
who to gain them would sweat anu
toll In the parched fields from sunrise
to sunset for twelve weeks-wages
current this last quarter Of the nine
teenth century. For less than two OF
them will not q man labor In darkness
In the bowels Of the earth with con-
slant peril to life or limb. or stand be-
fore roaring furnace. or work In the
noxious mir Of factory amid the mad
deniug whirl Of machinery for week,
iesteeming himself fortunate II sueh
slender means Of life SO earned he not
denied him? For want Of these same
counters has not q loving husband and
father watched his wife pine and bis
child die? Answer, you who have
been up and down this England OF
ours, you who have traversed her
towns and villages, you who know how
the poor live and how they die. Is 1t
not so? Why. in the towns OF Chris
tian England, 10 every man plucked
by the sleeve who passes along the
byeway? What IL the cause? Lust?
Nay; dire need of q pitifully few silver
counters, and the inability Of hundreds
of thousands Of women to gain them
by means more honorable. Even /,
whose xfe has not yet run to two dec
ades, and who have always lived re-
mote from the busy haunts Of men.
cannot but knows these truths; and Is
Il not wrong In one who has youth,
leisure, and the luxuries Of life to SO
passionately desire to grasp this treas
ure, which he has done nothing to ac-
auire and which certainly ID not his!
But a few days ago. and the whoie
spirit Of greed was foreign to my na'
ture; now is my whole being domi'
mated by II. Alas. can It be that Love,
purest Of passions. evokes Avarice
No; desire Of that which IL necessary
I'm comprising a natural and laudable
ambition IL not avarice. These &c
quius are necessary to me il ! am to
win the girl upon whom have set
nv heart; ray, more. perhaps they
have been reserved in this mysterious
way for this special object Have
not the wise men Of the earth In every
age ascribed what are commonly called
mysteries to the orderly DEGREES Of
h;rh ,,omass2 Rnf for nv love OF