The Washington bee., 1911-07-15


the beach, now conscious that the 81
lent form had left something behind, a
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
den from view.
With appalling suddenness 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
magically 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 70 its
verge the sand showed no trace Of
dampneSs The sea stretched level
expanse. broken here and there by dim
pling wavelets.
'Tll be hanged if l know what to
make Of it." muttered Jarvis dazedly.
ST 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, and now it's 9:3O. 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 small,
| dark object the man had left behind.
| There should be a little sand mound
| here-and there wasi
| 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
! grimIy dug into the shallow heap or
sand 1t was ii 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
small water soaked box bound with
iron bands. This was treasure trove.
Jarvis hastened 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 tarnished 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 will,
! few months wages tied in little oil.
skin sacks, the owners name on the
o 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
. visiOn-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 Week Of the Sea Nymph
and try to find the relatives of James
Petrol.
4 After that Jarvis tumbled into bed
6 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.
4 cerning wrecks on the coast. "It was
{ as far back as 1885 that the Sea
% Nymph went ashore off here. She got
{ on the shoals, but the seas were riding
Il so high she didn't stick. Back she
5 went, and they simply swallowed her
e up, so the story goes. Bits Of cargo
p foated ashore long afterward-one or
IS two bodies Of seamen. That was all,
Divers never found trace of her. II
a was the worst storm ever known on
g the coast. After that they built the
l. breakwater and the lighthouse. Az
r that time there was an old isherman's
d hut on the spot where your cottage
10 now stands Tradition has it that the
old man lured the steamer to her ruin.
it If he did it was small profit to him,
" for the storm washed his hut into the
d sea, and be went with It, The man
Is who owns your cottage once found a
e copper canister filed with choica
l. smoking tobacco buried in the sand
near by. 1t pleased him to resurrect
g it and smoke it. He quit using it aft,
d er awhile because, he claimed. it gave
d him the nightmare-said the Sea
70 Nymph went ashore every night in his
dreams If there's any Of it left you
a better not smoke it," added the oldest
s. cottager whimsically.
b, IT'S all gone" replied Jarvis, with q