Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1910-10-02

! lost In the darkness. Then the waves
came again and again, sucking up the
sand and plling It over and about the
dark object until 1t was entirely hid
den from view.
With appalling suddenness the storm
vanished as If 1t had never been. over
head the stars shone gently. and the
waves softly Tapped the quiet beach.
Jarvis found his motive power as II
magically restored With a leap he
was off the cot and dashlng down the
stairs 10 the sand. There he stood
dumfounded.
To the touch OF his stockinged feet
the sand was warm and dry. His
groping fingers confirmed that fact.
The tide was rising. and almost to It's
verge the sand showed no trace OF
dampness. The sea stretched a Level
expanse, broken here and there by dim
ping wavelets.
"I'n be hanged If l know what 10
make Of t." muttered Jarvis dazedly.
81 couldn't have been dreaming, ana
vet''- He looked at his watch. It's
certainly up to me or the tobacco I've
been smoking, Nine o'clock when l
turned in, and now it's $50. Even
in these swift times they don't turn
storms OF and on at that gait"
Chagrined, he walked over to the
place under his balcony where the
waves had tossed the dead man FOR a
j I...f
him. Jarvis had watched 1t with his
own eyes. and he had seen the follow
ing waves heap sand about a small
dark object the man had left behind
There should be a little sand mound
here-and there was!
The painter was too excited to re-
turn to his bed; therefore he went into
the cottage, found an old fashioned
lantern. In which he stuck Adle
end. took up n coal shovel and went
back to the beach.
Here by the candles dim light he
grimly dug into the shallow heap OF
sand. 1t was n FOOLS business, he told
himself as he delved downward to
where the sand was soaking wet and
! the water oozed up into little wells and
| impeded his labor.
At last came rags and shreds OF
something that might have been an oil
skin coat, and afterward: deeply en-
bedded in the sand. Jalels found q
small water soaked box bound with
| iron bands. This was treasure trove.
Jarvis fastened TO the cottage and
with hammer and chisel pounded
away at the little box until its rotted
sides fell inward and the iron bands
| crumbled to rusty fakes.
Pitiful indeed was the little treasure
contained in the tiny cheSt-a sailor
keepsakes Bits of coral and pretty
shells and stones. a wOman's lovely
face smiling from furnished frame
a baby's first photograph. the mothers
loving inscription penned on the back
a few letters, intimately tender, from
wife TO husband; a copy of 4 wiz. a
few months wages tied in little oil
skin sacks, the owners name on the
inside Of q memorandum book-James
Petrol, master of the freighter Sea
Nymph-that was all.
| So the man who had been thrown on
the beach as revealed to Jarvis in the
vision-for such the painter believed
his strange adventure TO be-must have
been the captain of the Ill fated vessel
On the morrow he would inquire con
corning the wreck of the Sea Nymph
and try to find the relatives of James
Petrol
After that Jarvis tumbled into bed
and went TO sleep. wondering why he
of all men had been chosen TO bring to
light the long buried box. He dreamed
about the curly headed baby. whose
charming smile pursued him through
, his dreams.
Yes" said the oldest cOttager when
Jarvis guardedly made inquiries con
| corning wrecks on the coast. 1T was
as far back as 1855 that the Sea
Nymph went ashore of here She got
on the shoals. but the seas were riding
so high she didn't stick. Back she
went. and they simply swallowed her
up. so the story goes. Bits Of cargo
foated ashore long afterward-one or
two bodies Of seamen. That was all
Divers never found trace Of her. II
was the worst storm ever known on
| the coast. After that they built the
breakwater and the lighthouse Al
that time there was an old fsherman's
hut on the spot where your cottage
now stands. Tradition has II that the
old man Iured the steamer to her ruin
II he did it was small profit TO him
for the storm washed his hut into the
sea. and he went with IL The man
who owns your cottage once found a
copper canister filed with choice
smoking tobacco buried in the sand
near by. II pleased bin 10 rcSurreci
IL and smoke It. He quit using it aft
or awhile because. ne claimed. it gave
him the nightmarc-said the Sea