Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-10-05
The Argus Daily Short Story
Treasure Trove-By Clarissa Mackie.
Copyrighted. 1910, by Associated Literary Press.

I Huge waves pounded on the beach.
breaking in binding spray that drench-
ed his face. Some dark shape doomed
out Of the blackness, coming nearer.
He discerned the outlines OF a large
| white stea mer. saw dark forms tossed
against her whiteness, heard the biare
of her distress signals. saw her careen
on the shoals and become engulfed in
the sea. Still the waves broke on the
beach, and in their tossing they flung
n dark form on the white sand beneath
the balcony
Jarvis tried to rise. but his limbs
seemed paralyzed. He endeavored to
utter a sound. but his lips were dumb.
He could only sit there on his couch
| wildly conscious of tragedy heaped on
| tragedy. powerless to help.
Another wave rose high crested.
curved downward and gTeedily snatch
ed the still dark form from the sands
| drew it out into the seas bosom and
| kept t.
HOrrifed. the painter stared dow, at
the beach. now conscious that the ST.
lent form had left something behind.
small dark object whose outlines were
| lost in the darkness. Then the waves
came again and again, sucking up the
sand and piling it over and about the
dark object until it was entirely hid
dea from view.
I With appalling SudGenness the storm
vanished as if it had never been. Over
head the stars shone gently, and the
waves softly Tapped the quiet beach.
Jarvis found his motive power as If
magicaHy restored. With a leap he
was off the cot and dashing down the
| stairs TO the sand. There he stood
/ dumfounded.
To the touch of his stockinged feet
| the sand was warm and dry. His
| cropping fingers confirmed that fact.
| The tide was rising. and almost to its
verge the sand showed no trace Of
dampness. The sea stretched a level
expanse. broken here and there by dim
| ping wavelets.
IN be hanged if l know what TO
make of it." muttered Jarvis dazedly
Il couldn't have been dreaming, and
| yet He looked at his watch. ITS
certainly up to me or the tobacco I've
been smoking. Nine o'clock when
| turned in. al now it's $50. Even
/ in these swift times they don't turn
storms off and on at that gait!'
Chagrined. he walked over to the
| place under his balcony where the
waves had tossed the dead man for
brief instant before they reclaimed
| him. Jarvis had watched it 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 a candle
| end, took up a coal shovel and went
| back to the beach.
! Here by the candies dim light he
grimly dug into the shallow heap of
sand. 1t was a 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. Jarvis found a
Suldil WATER SOdhGU bOA DOuuu Will
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 flakes.
| Pitiful indeed was the little treasure
contained in the tiny chest-a sailors
keepsakes. Bits of coral and pretty
shells and stones, a woman's lovely
face smiling from a furnished frame,
baby's first photograph. the mothers
loving inscription penned on the back;
few letters, intimately tender. from
wife to husband; a copy of a will, a
few months wages tied in little oil
skin sacks, the ownes's name on the
inside of a 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
vis.on-for such the painter believed
his strange adventure to be-must have
| been the captain of the I'll fated vessel.
On the morrow he would inquire con-
corning the wreck of the Sea Nymph
and try to find the relatives of James
y DofroI