The Carlisle independent., 1917-07-26

sand, in q wind-sheltcred nook be- tween two rocks, he saw the imprint of naked foot.
 Jerry went back to the cave, and here his second surprise waited him. IL sent the blood coursing tumultuous- ly through his veins. It made him want to shout in ecstasy.
 No savage, but a white man, or. at least, a civilized man, had teGanted those shores. Within the cave were packing cases, containing a supply of food which must be sufficient for two years He saw canned beef, biscuit of the army kind, piled from the sandy | floor to the rocky roof; jams, dainties, rations, which must have been carried i there for a party of scientific explor CTS rather than ships crews or set i tlers
 He gaped in amazement at the con densed milk the sugar, the four, tea, coffee, matches. Near by were scat tered some rusty instruments resem- bling theodOlites.
 He thought he understood. This is- land was not unknown, then. A party from some observatory had come here, probably to watch a solar eclipse. l But there was food enough to last q whole party six months and more. And there was a pile of empty cans behind him, where the cave narrowed to a fox-hole.
 He could not understand. He left the cave and paced the sands. trying to solve the problem. Who had been here, and why had they brought food in such quantity?
 It was then that the third surprise afforded him an answer to his ques- tions.
 1 Stretched out upon the sand was a whitened skeleton-a mans. Jerry thought, and an old mans, for the l spine was curved at the region of the shoulders, and the teeth, which had 1 not all gone from the jaws, were worn and crooked.
 Yet still he did not understand
 He sat there, puzzling. He paced the strip of sand once more, until, feel ing the bangs of hunger rise as his
 
 the cave to procure food.
 In a large packing case which had been opened he found some rusty i'm plements of aluminum-a saucepan, a teakettle. a frying pan. Searching about he came on some stores of compressed peat, used for fuel. It was nearly all gone, evidently the y4. 1. I the island.
 He made meal and ate as sparing- l ly as his ravenous appetite would per init. Afterward he stretched himself in the sun to sleep. His hands groped idly in the sand.
 The left hand closed upon a bottle buried there by the wind-drifts Idly he picked it up. Within it was manu- script.
 Jerry was wide awake in an instant He knew that this was the clue, the answer to his perplexities. | AS he drew out the roll his eyes fell upon the name written at the bottom. It was Joseph Dexterl And now everything was made clear. Fate had brought him to Ravengar ledge, the almost unknown islet in the South Atlantic, to find which he had fitted out the schooner, the place where Morgan. the buccaneer, had hid den his treasure hoard. The skeleton was that of Dexter.
 Feverishly he unrolled the manu- script and began to read:
 ITO Whom It May Concern: Be it known that here, on the Ledge of Rayengar, there are two treasures one of gold, the other of far more value. The first I have found-it is that of Sir Henry Morgan, buccaneer; the other I have made. Here in my dead hand you will find it-three black pellets. To the finder they mean pow CT beyond all dreams of men"
 Jerry laid down the manuscript and hastened to the skeleton. There, clutched in the bony fingers, he found the pellets which old Dexter had held grasped tightly. even in death.
 Jerry picked them up and started back to the cave. Suddenly, out of the rising tide, snakelike arm protruded.
  sought him, and grasped him about the leg.
 Another and another followed. Struggling. shouting, Jerry felt himself being dragged into the water. And now, held fast in the fleshy, clinging tenacles. he looked, waist-deep in the sea, into the cruel eyes and parrotlike beak of a huge octOnuS
 Unnerved but desperate. he thrust his fists into the creatures face. He fought with all the fury of his despair It was the irony of fate that at this moment, when life, which had taken all away, had restored more than she took, death in such hideous form should have beset him.
 But the creature. souirming on the sandy bottom, moved toward the deep water. The ocean level reached Jer~