Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-08-23
Bought For a Sixpence
ICopyright. 1902. by c. B. Lewis.I

! q siXpence. Among them was a rude
| chart or drawing. and the writing was
In pencil and displayed a very poor
hand. 1t ran:
North of Timor Laut about seventy
three Enter north bay.
Bring up line with three tall trees
on highest point and in five fathoms.
"Spring of fresh water to left of big
rock ON port bow
1 found the chart when aboard ship
was mate of the schooner, and at
once laid the paper before the captain.
We got out q chart of the Banda sea,
found the island of Timor Laut and
then measured off seventy-three miles
to the north. This brought us to POpe's
island. Neither of us had ever landed
there, but understood that the island
was not inhabited. The instructions
were to enter the north bay and bring
up at certain spot. What for? The
existence of a spring was mentioned,
but why should we go ashore? Unless
there was something of value ON or
about the island why had it been noted
and the writing carried around by u
sailor?
The captain and 1 talked the matter
over and over, but could make 1t no
palmer. 1t was natural under the cir
cumstances that our minds should run
to buried treasure. Indeed we couldn't
get rid of the feeling that the sailor
who had died in the hospital had
planted something of value on Pope's
island, and that being the case we de-
cided to have n try for 1t. What has
tened our decision was n conversation
overheard between two sailors who
had been at the hospital inquiring
about Kane and his effects.
/ think 1t was on the twenty-third
day out of Sydney that we entered the
bay on the north side of Pope's island.
After having reached the shore we
found the spring, but as we stood be-
side 1t we looked at each other and
asked what should be the next move.
The island was thickly wooded, and
we soon realized that we had better
have hunted for a needle in u haystack
at home.
The chart mentioned three tall trees
in a group and the spring. We found
the trees standing back n quarter of n
mile from the beach, with never n
mark of any sort on the trunks to fur
nish us a hint. The spring was about
200 feet above high tide, but nothing
around It furnished the clew we were
after.
For a week after our arrival we had
| every man ashore on the hunt. We
paced off so many PAGES from the
spring in every direction and then dug
into the earth. We dug about the
roots OF the three tall trees and then
at ten, twenty and thirty PAGES. When
the tide was out, we dug up the beach
in a dozen places. The island was
finally explored in every direction, but
we had our toilsome work as a reward.
On the afternoon of the eighth day we
gave 1t up. We did not doubt the ex-
| istence of n treasure there, but we
were satisfied that we couldn't lay our
hands on II. We pulled off to the
schooner about O'Clock in the after
noon, and had there been any breeze
we should have weighed anchor and
put to sea at once, but it had fallen
dead calm, and the day was a hot one.
On getting aboard the captain and
sat down to luncheon, while the Ma
lays went overheard for a bath and a
frolic in the water. We heard them
shouting and splashing, but we were
glum. We'd made failure of it and
We're financially busted" Under such
circumstances some one must be held
blamable. The captain suddenly be-
gan to blame me for the biggest fool
that ever lived, and in the course of q
couple of minutes our conversation
was a great deal hotter than the wealth
err We'd been "pards'' long time
without a word, but were now on the
point of walking into each other tooth
and toe nail when a wild yell from the
Malays stopped us.
"Nipped by a shark, just as 1 expect
ed?' growled the captain as he made O
dash for the deck. l followed, OF
course, and as 1 reached the quarter
deck and looked over the four Malays
were in the yawl, and one of them was
holding up something for the captains
inspection. We both knew what 1t
was before it was passed up to us. 1t
was q pearl oyster, and a monstrous
large one too.
@Where did you find itT' asked the
captain.
"On the bottom" was the answer.
''There is one great bed of them down
therer
Five minutes later we had half a
dozen more, and inside of an hour we
had surveyed the bed and found our
treasure-the treasure of John Kane's
rude chart. In bringing up in five faith
oms and in line with the trees we had
anchored on the center of the bed. Why
he had mentioned the spring we could
not make out, unless it might be to
save time hunting for it if In want of
water.
You may have seen something in
print in reference to 1.-The great Pope
Island find" as it was called. 1t was
not the largest pearl oyster bed ever
found among the western islands, but
L II nunc hrr Ionor odds Az, rIni.r4 ~,