Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-10-25
NUMBER 43.

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certainly up to me or the tobacco i've
been smoking. Nine o'clock when !
turned in. and 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 a
brief instant before they reclaimed
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 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 coal shovel and went
back TO the beach.
Here by the candies dim light he
grimly dug into the shallow heap OF
sand II was a fools business, he told
himself as he delved downward 10
where the sand was soaking wet and
the water oozed up into little wells and
impedcd his labor.
At last came rags and Shrcds OF
something that might have been IN oil
skin coat. and afterward. deeply em-
beGded In the sand. Jarvis found
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 flakes.
Pitifu 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 tarnished frame,
a baby's first photograph, the mothers
loving inscription penned on the back;
a few letters, intimately tender, from
wife to husband; copy Of will, a
few months wages tied in little OIL
skin sacks, the owners name on the
inside Of a m" morandum 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 III fated vessel
On the morrow he would inquire con-
cerning 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 1885 that the Sea
Nymph went ashore off 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. 50 the story goes. Bits Of cargo
1oated ashore long afterward-one or
two bodies of seamen. That was all.
Divers never found trace Of her. 1t
was the worst storm ever known on
the coast. After that they built the
brcakwater and the lighthouse. At
that time there was an old fsherman's
hut on the spot where your cottage
now stands. Tradition has II that the
old man lured the steamer 10 her ruin.
III he did ii WAS small profit to him.
for tie storm washed his hut into the
sea. and be- went with IT, The man
who owns your cottage once found
copper canister filed with choice
smoking tobacco buried In the sand
near by. Ii pleased him to resurrect
it and smoke it. He quit using It aft
er awhile because. he claimed, It gave
him the nightmare-said the Sea
Nymph went ashore every night in his
dreams. II there's any OF 1t left you
better not smoke it, added the Oldest
tottager whimsically.
ITS all gone" replied Jarvis. with q
cryptic smile.
And this Is the treasure that Jarvis
found When he had traced the wild
ow of the luckless Captain Peuel he
found her prosperously married to one
OF the ships owners, while the s-lv
headed baby with the charming snfE y
had grown TO he the lovcliest girl jar
Wis had ever met. AS a consequence
Doris Petrol became the artists wife. E
In addition, the memory OF the VI
sion that had come TO him that night
clung so pcrsistently in his mind that
he transferred the stormy scene to
canvas with every detail OF that wild
night OF thunder and lightning, hurri-
cane winds and mammoth waves. tho
ghostllke vessel shuddering to her wa
terry grave. the package on the beach
half obliterated by the sand. Next to
Doris herself, this picture proved to be
Jarvis treasure, for 1t made his for
tune