The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1902-11-08

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down on the beach and took the op.
Quired considerable stratagem in the
wind. He succeeded, however, and
pulled away while he waited to hear
Purcell's voice.
1.-THE old mans about crazy on the
subject" Dick unused, and I'm not
sorry he is. I've kept him going on
this AFFAIR we'll, and he is n%egiecting
his business about as much as q man
can. All the better for me. He owes
me a round sun now, and he'll have
to borrow more. Pretty Kate Purcell
doesn't know that the bread she eats
now comes from my pocket. Time
enough for her to know It. OF course
there isn't any treasure here, still
there may be, and I'll keep the old
man hot On the scent, and II we come
to anything, why, Ill share in it., He's
lost his head about 1t, anyway.
Burt's musings by no means took so
plain q formsSs the words above, but
that was the sense of the thought in
his mind.
He had decided to marry Kate Pur.
cell, the Daughter of the Beach," as
she was called, and he did not think
his influence with her father would
come amiss. a- \
It was accident that had first given
him a knowledge of Mr. Purcell's
notion that there was treasure buried
on the shore, and he had shrewdly
taken immediate advantage of that
knowledge and famed the mans fancy
until it had become q mania.
Indeed, so strong had 1t become that
Richard Burt himself, with all his hard
common sense, half believed Purcell's
notion might be true.
Purcell was q man of intellectual
tastes, which he had cultivated In
many ways, until the fishermen near
by had called him "the Scholar" half
in derision.
He had always been poor, but he had
been industrious, taking his holidays
with books, instead of the uncouth
pleasures which had delighted his
neighbors. But he had all his life
yearned for riches; still more now
that his daughter was grown up with
the face and mien of a gentlewoman.
"She should have advantages-she
should never spend her life on these
sands and with these fishermen" he
told himself.
And every day the thought and hope
grew stronger "for her sake"
He was credulous and unbalanced in
some degree. Though his mind had
twice the power in most directions
that Richard Burt possessed, still the
younger man had that shrewdness,
that sense that enabled him to obtain
a master over the elder.
A prolonged whistle from Purcell
made Burt rise to his feet and walk
forward. AS he did SO, a low, rum
bling roll of thunder came from the
clouds in the west, and a flash of light
revealed, in wierd radiance, the dark,
shining water, the black shore and the
figures of the two men who were
staring forward with dilated eyes.
Then all was black again:
A great splash of rain followed, and
the wind fell to an utter calm, where
in the gentle tapping of the waves
could be heard palmer than anything
else.
Burt proceeded to light a small dark
lantern he had brought.
cts going to rain," he said, "and we
must be spry, for, when it really be-
gins it will rain guns"
They both began rapidly to remove
the stones with which they had con-
cealed their previous labors, for they
dared not leave traces Of their work
that might lead to discovery.
They both worked with rapidity, and
soon a large cavity was disclosed, in
which they. both began shoveling the
wet sand.
'It is only about four feet more-in
this direction" said Purcell, striking
| his shovel into the ground. -
"That pirate must have been a
deuced strong fellow to have chucked
his treasure in so far" remarked Burt.
at could not originally have been
thus far" replied Purcell. "We must
allow for the changes the wave have
made"
81 forgot that" was the answer;
"but I wish the waves had washed the
sand away, instead of upon the place."
A quarter of an hour passed, and
still the tempest had not burst, though
its m%utterings grew louder than ever
and heavy drops Of rain occasionally
fell.
Suddenly a sharp exclamation burst
from Purcell, and he dropped his SHOW
ell and turned to Burt, crying:
I'VE have reached it at last! Our
fortune is made!"
The tone and the words startled
Burt. Could 1t be possible that the
old books story was true, after; all
that they had come upon the treasure,
which he had really never believed in?
Visions of what he would do with his
riches darted across his mind.
"You don't mean it," he cried, press
ing to the old mans side. Where is
It? Are you sure?"
Purcell caught up his shovel again,
as he said:
81 struck the chest. It is here. We
are rich lei Kate shall be rich at
last!"
Kate! Yes. The thought Of her
was uppermost at that moment in both
mems minds.
Then they fell to work, with frantic
haste, and 1t was then that the storm
burst in fury upon them, the rain COM
ing down in sheets, the lightning fash
ing from n end Of the heavens to the
other. the thunder crashing al IL It
would split open the earth.
But the men did not mind It, 80 alb
sorbed were they. Their lantern had
long since been extinguished, but the
brilliance of the lightning enabled
them to work, and by the light they
saw that what Purcell's shovel had
touched was q thick oaken chest, four
l feet square.