CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1904-06-16
Triton Island.

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John Andrews. a sailor met in hos
pital at Liverpool. told me that three
years before he was wrecked on Triton
island, in the China sea. where he
found a big Chinese junk full of sill
yer bars worth $4,000. He removed
the bars to a grove and two weeks
later was rescued by passing vessel.
Resolved to get the treasure made
up party to do so.
Five of us were to make up a purse
for the expense and share and share
alike OF course the arrangement was
not concluded until the other four had
seen Andrews and heard his story and
satisfied themselves as to its truth.
After carefully canyassing the matter
it was thought best that he and I
should take steamer to Singapore and
there hire and man sailing craft to
proceed TO the island and fetch away
the treasure.
When we reached Singapore the first
move was to find and charter craft
l cautioned my man over and over
again not to drop a hint of what we
were after. Indeed. after finding
craft TO please me we did not pretend
to know each other in public, and he
shipped aboard of her in the regular
way as a foremast hand.
had not seen Andrews for three
or four days when l called at his
boarding house one evening to give
him fresh instructions and found him
SO drunk that / was unable to arouse
~ o., roll fr,n ,fria
the landlady l learned that he had
been knocking around all day with
two strangers. one of whom was chief
mate of an American vessel and just
out of hospital after a run of fever.
Next morning found Andrews quite
sobered up and very much ashamed
of himself. He plainly told me that
he feared he had said too much to the
strangers the day previous He had
not intended to go on spree, and It
was his belief that he had been drug
ged. He was frightened and repentant.
but our only recourse was to hope that
no harm had been done and to push
along as fast as possible
Two days before we were ready to
sail, an Arab dhow, which had been
berthed near our craft and aboard of
which l had seen the Yankee mate and
several other English speaking people.
sailed away to the north. leaving the
harbor at night and as secretly as pos
sible
From the moment of the departure
of the dhow l felt sure that she was
acting on a hint dropped by Andrews.
1t was question of how much he had
told. II he had not mentioned the
name of the island, then we had still a
good show The news Of the loss of the
junk at sea was public property in
way, and at least two searching ex-
petitions had spent some time trying
to solve the mystery Of her fate We
worked day and night to get on. and
we were only two days behind the
dhow. She had left with fair wind.
and all the way up to the gulf of Siam
we had wretched luck and no show
whatever to overtake her.
1t was long. dreary voyage we had
up the China sea. and it was not half
complete before Andrews fell i'll. His
only ailment was remorse. For many
long months he had dreamed and
planned on what he would do when
share of it. with wages added. would
enable him TO leave the sea and spend
the rest of his days on land Ii was
the fear that lie had been foolish
enough to betray the secret that har-
assed him until he became seriously i'll.
On arriving at the island at last
boat was sent of to see if the place
was clear She found no craft and
went far enough up the bay to see the
wreck OF the junk. We then lowered
another boat and towed our craft in.
and MS soon as she had been anchored
unc madc snug we landed and made
straight FOR the thickei where the sill
yer bars had been hidden away years
before
II did not take us a minute to dis
cover that they had been removed, and
that within a few days. In place OF
them were broken spades and the
prints OF shoes, and on the beach near
the wreck We're the ashes Of a camp
FIRE. We beat up the locality, thinking
the bars might have been removed to a