The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1917-03-09


'he pilothouse and other stuff kept us
company as far as we went. y
I'm 1860 d cutoff occurred near the
Iowa bluffs and left the hulk three
miles back in the country. The bend
siited up long ago. sX,d noC there are
fifteen inch cottonwoods growing above
the grave of the General
That's the story. young man, and
will you be good enough to tell me
how In thunder you are going to get
down twenty-five feet In quicksand?
You cannot dig quicksand like plain
dirt. II runs like water You might
ns well try to bale out the Missouri
river or the Atlantic ocean for that
matter. That's the question There
Is no known way Of sinking pit In
quicksand."
Its simple enough as soon as you
know how" said Grover. laughing.
Its going to take little money and
some machinery. but believe ! very
soon can raise all the help we need
Tomorrow morning we will drop In
and see a lawyer and settle our mat
| tiers Of partnership In this enterprise.
and then we will go to the ice plant
know the president there, and I have
a promise from him to see me through
with my legitimate undertaking"
II was not so easy to get the million
aire iceman to take any stock In
treasure hunt. 1t was not. he said, so
much the amount of money involved.
because that wasn't much. but he
hated to be mixed up In any scheme
that looked fishy. This buried treas
are chase would get around and hurt
his standing, he thought.
Suppose we leave it this way" pro
posed Grover-"Packard and l will
make a set of soundings and explore
the ground thoroughly. II we find the
old boat where he says she Is We'll
see what you think about the matter
then"
"All right, Grover; you find the boat
and will come pretty near underwrit'
ing this enterprise. My opinion is that
you will find nothing stronger than
good rich Missouri bottom mud"
"All right. sir" said Grover cheer
fully. II know you are from Missouri,
and If j am not able to show you all
bets are off,"
r Come on. Packard" called Grover.
whirling on his heels; lets get busy!'
The next morning found Grover and
Packard on the way TO the scene of
operations In blackboard with lot
of stuff the young man had borrowed
from the local government engineer.
For FIVE miles they followed the river
road and then struck Off over wagon
trail through the brush toward the
bluffs. fH
81 can find my way to the place in
the dark" said the old man, all excite
ment. 1--WE will be on the ground In
three minutes.
"There, do you see that curving ridge
in front of us? That's the bank Of the
old bend, now all filed in with the
overflow Of mud from the river. Here
Is the stake at the intersection Of the
two ranges. You can gamble that the
old General is right under Us this
minute and the yellow boys as good
as they were when put aboard In "a"
Now show me the ranges" sai6
Grover "They are Of the utmost I'm
portance."
"One." showed Packard. rs the line
through that point Of rock above the
railroad cut and the gap In the bluffs
back of st. Mary's. Do you get thatT
Yes" said Grover. And the otherT
1.-THE other range Is not quite sc
good. It's the head of that bend on
the Iowa bank, OH line with the high
point OF the bluff beyond. Do you
catch it?"
81 have It such as it is" said Grover,
land we will get right on the job and
see If VIC can punch the General the
first crack"
Grover produced bunch Of steel
sounding rods from tie wagon, and
carefully plumbing one had Packard
hold 1t perpendicular at the stake.
while with few blows Of a maui he
sank 1t level with the ground.
That's Eve feet" he said and screw
ed on another section. sinking that the
same way. "If strike rock we can
tell by the metallic sound. and II we
run against wood there will be no
difficulty in telling that by the feel
Of It."
In few minutes dozen lengths
were sent down sixty feet. and no
wood was found.
Old Packard looked disappointed.
Grover saw that the uncertainty
lay in the second range and that the
only way was to explore wide ter
ritory Systematically.
This was to be done by laying out
section of ground like a checker
board, with a stake at each corner Of
the squares, and probe at one stake
after another until they struck the
hull. IL not then. to lay out another
set OF squares and I'm that way ex-
haust all possible territory.
They sounded the next day, and the
next. and the next. Nearly at the
end Of week OF prodding the rod
struck wood, and Packard did a horn
pipe on the spot.
The next morning Grover brought
down three husky laborers and had
several soundings going on at once
In this way he was able I'm time to