Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-05-03
Copyright
CHAPTER XIV
THE CRYPT.

TdE ChlFIs
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
alone, and never so profoundly as
when involuntarily-when the mental
faculties are so absorbed in cOntem-
plation of one subject that diversion
from it is as being awakened from
sleep.
l 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 l am sure
from the interruption which dispelled
my reverie.
had emptied my pockets. and oil
the money l possessed-six soyerelgns
and some odd shillings-lay before me
on the mantelpiece. Perhaps 1t was
the sight of these few coins which led
me to review ny experiences OF the
past twelve days. and to seriously ask
myself for the last time before seek
ing assurance by actual essay, what
were my chances to find the treasure
which had been deposited in the crypt
beneath my fathers house. That the
treasure of which | had that day read
lad been disposed of as described by
my ancestor, | 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 IL
not distinctly asserted by Roger true
man that the treasure was in the AD-
bots Cell in the crypt-that 1t was TO
remain there until he built hospltal!
Might not the bricked-up arch when
NV aunt Gertrude had noticed when
she went over Holdcnhurst Hall be
this same Abbot's Cell alluded to by
my ancestor; and might not the reason
for it's being bricked up be to secure lls
contents? And if that were so, couid
its contents be other than the quarter
of million Venetian sequins when
had so strangely fallen into my ances-
tors possession and been as strangely
bestowed by him? 1t must be so. NO
one of my family had ever built or
endowed a hospital-no one OF them
had ever possessed so much money
ms q quarter of million sequins. un-
less it were this same Roger Trueman;
and had so large sum OF money Deen
found in our house and appropriated
by any member of my family at any
uer'od | could not have failed to hear
of It. Yes; the money must certainly
lie there, and would presently go be-
low and look at it, and my father anu
| would fetch it upstairs in the morn
ing. Then would my father and l In
sist ON returning to uncle Sam the
money which he had so generously
given to us; then would l ask Con-
stance Marsh to become my wife;
then
What thing is 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 and
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 a 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
EoNious air of a factory amid the mad
dening whirl of machinery for week,
csteeming himself fortunate If such
slender means of life so earned be not
denied him? For want of these same
counters has not loving husband and
father watched his wife pine and his
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 it
not so? Why. in the towns or CHRIS
tian England, is every man plucked
by the sleeve who passes along the
byeway? What is the cause! Lust!
Nay; dire need of pitifully few silver
counters, and the inability of hundreds
of thousands of women to gain them
by means more honorable. Even l,
r., npf to two dec
ades, and who have always lived re-
mole from the busy haunts of men,
cannot but knows these truths; and Is
It not wrong in one who has youth,
leisure, and the luXuries of life to SO
passionately desire to grasp this treas
urc, which he has done nothing to ac-
0uire and which certainly is not his!
But few days ago, and the whole
spi it of greed was foreign to my ma
ture; now is my whole being domi-
mated by it. Alas, can it be that Love,
purest of passions, evokes Avarice!
No; desire OF that which is necessary
in comprising a natural and laudable
ambition Is not avarice. These Sc
quins are necessary to me II l am to
win the girl upon whom / have set
my heart; nay, 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