The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1910-12-22

though he did not know II. he bad
maze mental leap bridging n cen
fury since his ancestors death He
determined to make study of the
statue and everything that pertained
10 II. Every morning he devoted an
hour to sitting before the bronze. look
Ing at 1t and thinking about It, Per-
maps be fancied that by thus mentally
! dwelling upon 1t through some spirit
ual process the secret would be
impaired to him. The inscription en-
gagged bis attention, but he could make
nothing of 1t. And yet there must
nave been an object In putting 1t there
alone, and especially with the hour and
minute of birth.
one morning Colonel Granville was
sitting as usual studying the statue.
Inc sun spot was crawling slowly over
the wall as 1t had been travelling year
In and year out for 100 years. The
colonel was watching 1t as he had Of.
ten watched 1t before. third new
idea came to him. Might not this
sun spot have some meaning?
Th re seems TO be two kinds of ideas
In the human brain. those that are
original or parent ideas and those that
are offspring. The present case is an
Illustration. The conception that the
sun spot might have some meaning
was ia measure original Though ev.
erything, after all. Is but a link in an
eternal chain. and It suggested anoth.
er idea-viz. Might not there be a con
nection between the sun spot and the
date Of birth on the statue?
Colonel Granville sprang from his
chair. He was confident that he had
made an important discovery. What
that discovery would lead to was an
other matter. He had little expecta-
ton that II would work out his first
conceptions which had come from the
letter he had read. but he hoped II
might solve the mystery of the statue
and the date inscribed upon it. He
was not long in inferring that on the
day. hour and minute recorded on the
statue the sun spot would rest on a
part of the wall which would give
some information or injunction intend
ed by the man who had erected the
statue.
The inscription gave the year. which
could be of no Importance since the
sun traverses the same apparent path
annually: the day. June II: the hour.
10 O'Clock. and the minute. the TWEEN
tyfifth. In other words. IL this were
the true explanation. on June II. at
twenty-five minutes after 10 o'clock.
the position of the sun spot would
mean something. 1t could not refer to
10 o'clock at night for an obvious rea-
son.
1t was early In April when Colonel
Granville hit upon this possible ex-
PLANTATION. Nearly two months of wait
ing would be necessary before the spot
would reach a position corresponding
with the date. The colonel, too impa-
tent to defer investigation for what
seemed to him so long a period. was
eager to get computer to come and
calculate where the spot would be on
the given day. But he knew OF no one
at hand who would be able to make
the calculation. Besides. he had no
desire to suffer the obloquy such an act
would cast upon him. for when he
stopped to think he was forced to ad-
NIT that no more chimerical Idea could
enter the brain of man.
So he was obliged TO wait and while
waiting planned an excuse for what
he proposed to do. He determined TO
make hole in the wall where the sun
spot rested on the 18th of June al
twenty minutes past 10 in the
morning. and he proposed TO tell the
household that he was looking for a
convenient location for a chimney he
was thinking of building Every day
after that the colonel watched the
movement of the spot with keen inter-
est. and at the end Of a month he
could calculate pretty nearly where it
would fall on the 18th of June. How
ever. he waited till the date came
round.
stands very high, practically at the
highest point during the year. Con
sequently the spot was at the lowest
point In fact. it rested on the floor
The colonel bored a hole In the floor
ing. incllning II from the sextant TO
the point Of the spots contact and. in
sorting tube. noted a place in the
cellar where the line of vision pro-
longcd would strike. Then one night
when the household was asleep he
went into the cellar with lantern. a
pick and a spade and began to dig.
He had cut through the cement bot
tom of the cellar and dug down exact
ly ten feet when he struck masonry.
1t was not very well put together. and
he soon loosened the upper stones.
coming to an open space, In this was
an iron box or safe, such as was used
many years ago. A blow Of the pick
knocked off the cover, and there lay a
mass of gold coins. On the coins lay
n paper. which Colonel Granville read.
His idea derived from the letter
written by his ancestor was correct.
Here was chest containing mix
ture of English. Spanish and other
gold pieces and Will bequeathing the
treasure to found an institution for
the amelioration of the negro race.
Colonel Granville replaced the earth
over the treasure and left 1t TO think
out the problem before him. Such a
beouest coming from the original tes-
tator would be absorbed in legal tech