Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-04-18
DAILY SHORT STORY
Old John Harding's Money
downright 1903 by c. B. Lewis. ]

veal his money. He was an old bach
elor, living on n farm with his broth
er Henry and his sister Hannah, and
it was known that he had been hoard
ing for forty years. He died in his bed
without giving an alarm and without
leaving any message as to where he
had hidden his wealth.
l was interested in the case as q dis
tant relative, while scores became in
terested through curiosity. We had to
hire men and arm them with guns to
keep the searchers off the farm, and
there were many among them who
would have kept every dollar of the
treasure had they stumbled upon it.
Where to search after the house had
been fruitlessly gone over was the
question, and it was a puzzling one.
Put yourself in old Mr.. Harding'S
place and tell me where you would
hide that money. Not in the house, for
fear of robbers first and a search later
on; not in the barn, because the build
ing was liable to be struck by lightning
and burned. He wanted to keep it
away from his relatives, and vet he
wouldn't want it lost for good and ALL
nor would he wish it to fall into the
hands of strangers. That is simply hui
man nature. 1t is a paradox, but it is
human nature as well. You wouldn't
throw it down the well, because the
well would be searched. There would
be the same objection to sheds and
stacks as to the barn. On
Both Hannah and Henry felt sure
the old man had buried the money.
felt just as certain to the contrary. He
had brought it home in installments,
and he would not run the risk of open
ing and closing a cache seven or eight
different times. Much of the lost mon
ey was drawn out of bank two weeks
previous to his death.
Whenever he went to town, he wore
a pair of boots. On all other days he
wore a pair of old shoes, which were
soft and easy on his feet. He did not
change back to his boots as soon as he
reached home, but only after he had
returned from walking about the farm;
hence it might be inferred that he had
to pass over bad ground.
The woman brought me his boots
just as he had pulled them off for the
last time. There was dried mud on
them. 1t could not be mud from the
highway. because when he went to
town last the roads were dusty. The
sole of the right boot was considerably
worn, and in a creyice found q little
sand. Again, on that same boot, stick
ing to the mud, were several blades of
grass. She brought me the suit of
clothes he had worn that day and for
three or four days subsequently, and
found cookies and burS on the trousers
and bits of rotten wood in one of the
coat pockets.
To the west of the house and half
mile away was the forest. To reach
it he had to pass through the orchard.
Between the orchard and the forest
was a creek. On the east side of it,
where. l judged, he would naturally
cross was q bed of sand On the other
side was a muddy spot. but with a log
to walk on. The forest covered eighty
acres of ground, and but little of it had
ever been cleared of underbrush.
In going from the house through the
orchard and across the creek and back
l got plenty of cookies and burs on my
clothes, and had l made q misstep at
the log 1 should have fallen into the
mud and water. Granted that the old
man had hidden his money in the
woods, what particular spot Should
look for? The brother had not hap
pened to see him go beyond the or
chard, but on one occasion, when he
had need of a certain tool and went to
the shed to find it, it was missing. Two
hours later it had been restored. It
was a malIet that he wanted.
Going on the theory that the old man
had used the mallet, went to the shed
and looked at all the tools. Most of
them were rusty with the dampness.
There was rust on a certain auger and
on a certain chisel, but it was fresh
rust. The point of the auger also re-
tanned some bits of the last wood it
had been bored into. These bits 1 was
assured by several persons had
beechy taste. Therefore 1 reasoned
that the anger had been bored into
beech tree. 1 had no doubt that he had
used mallet, chisel and anger to make
a hiding place for his money.
The first move was to go through the
forest in search of what might be call
ed eligible beech trees. marked off
twenty within ten minutes walk of the
creek and then began close inspec-
llOu VI cdcll one. uOI lOOh lOpS
or trunks, but on the ground. There
were plenty of brush and limbs and
dead leaves, but at the end of two days
steady search 1 found chips and splin-
ters in paving around and then knew
that the quest was ended.
Never did a man hide his money in
safer place or with more skillful
hands. The tree was a double one for
the first four feet from the ground.
Where the two came together was a
decayed spot. 1t wasn't larger than a
mans fist when Harding discovered 1t,
and funguses had taken root and were
thriving. Everything looked so per-
fectly natural that 1 was a good hour |
getting at the keyhole of the treasure !
box. Had / not found sure evidences
of his work in a few chips and splin- |
ters the tree would have been mt down /