Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-04-10
DAILY STORY
CAPTAIN DREAMS.

mine was visited by sea captain with
whom he had served. l overheard
much of their conversation. The Hin
doc finally died.
The name of the captain was
Draines. 4 few weeks later people
were calling him Dreams. He was a
good sailor. but poor in pocket. The
native had told him a secret before he
died.
The father of the dying native had
been a sepOy in the great mutiny, and
when the rebellion had been stamped
out he had to go into hiding and live
his last days in the jungle. When it
became apparent that the English
would conquer. a move was made by
all the wealthy HindOOs to save their
fortunes. The father was attached to
the force Of the nabOb of MysOre and
with certain others removed treasure
to the amount of million dollars from
that province to the coast and thence
by sailing craft to one of the Lacca-
dives. There 1t was buried. The ia
Their could not tell the son what par
ticular island 1t was, nor did he know
whether the treasure was recovered
after the war. He was wounded in
battle soon after his return to the
coast and when peace came he became
a fugitive to save himself. The treas
ure was taken ashore at night and de-
posted in a cave.
That was the story told to the son.
and that was the son who told it to the
captain. The story was over twenty
years old then. You will ask why the
son hadn't made a try for the treas
IRE. In the first place. for twenty
years after the war the English were
very vigilant about such things. but
claimed a big share of whatever the
natives found. Again. the son was
poor in pocket and diStrustful of his
fellow men. If he had had the money
TO fit out an expedition. he would have
had to take five or six persons into his
confidence and the chance of his being
murdered and deSpOiled was good in
deed. Had he gone to the owner of
any craft and offered half he would
have been laughed at. He had simply
come to the conclusion that the island
was one of the LaCCadive group. and
he could not say that the treasure had
not been removed years before. He
simply hung on to his secret and
waited. and he was waiting yet when
he was stabbed in street brawl.
Captain Draines at once determined
to try for the treasure. He had to
have money. and he had to have men.
and in this way it came to he known
that he was off after q million. No
one knew whittier he was bound. but
everywhere he showed up he was ridi-
culed and laughed at. Before he left
port he was spoken of as Captain
Dreams. He resigned from his ship.
chartered a native craft and selected n
crew to be depended on. He fitted the
craft to fight as well as to sail. and he
got away from Madras in the night
and was out of sight of the coast next
morning. He had his all in the enter
prise. and it was a case of make or
break with him.
The run down to the group was
made, but that was only the beginning
Some of the islands are only sand bars
or rocky islets, while others are four
or five miles in circumference and
heavily wooded. They had to he
searched in rotation. The craft would
be anchored in the channel between
two islands while parties landed on
either to search for cave. This
searching took up lots of time. At the
end Of three months only eight of the
i.Io ND ho
men were ready for mutiny. The pro
visions were gone, and hundred diff
ferent disappOintments had sOured the
temperS of the men. They agreed to
search the ninth island. but would go
no farther. If nothing was found
there. the captain must head for the
coast, even If he had to go in chains.
Fortune stands by some men i'll
strange ways. Half the island had
been explored when there came Il great
gale, and a French ship that had been
dlsmasted and abandoned at sea came
driving in. She furnished plenty of pro-
visions, and it was seen that the sal
wage of her cargo would give every
man good thing, treasure or no treas
ure.
The next day after the wreck drove
ashore Captain Dreams set out to gath
er some wild fruit. In their search the
men had discovered no animals of any
sort. The captain had not gone forty
rods when a goat sprang out of the
bushes and raced away. He turned at
a tangent to follow her and ten min
utes later found himself at the base of
rocky cliff with cave entrance five
feet above the ground. 1t was the ma
bob's treasure house, and the treasure
was there. He had portion of it with
| him when he returned to the men. Just
what the treasure amounted to in dol
lars and cents no one outside of the
treasure party ever learned. but the
| cargo taken from the wreck sold for
$4,000 at the Portuguese port of Goa.
Captain Dreams was ready to sail
| away and only waiting for the tide
when native craft with crew of
thirty fishermen and shell gatherers