Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-07-31
NUMBER 81.


turned In, and now it's $50. Even
In these swift times they don't turn
storms OF and on at that gait"
Chagrined, he walked over TO tho
place under his balcony where the
waves had tossed the dead man for .
brief instant before they reclaimed
him. Jarvis had watched II 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 was!
The painter was too excited to n
turn to his bed; therefore he went into
the cottage, found an old fashioned
lantern, in which he stuck q 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. 1t was q 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 i'm
bedded In the sand, Jarvis found q
small water soaked box bound with
iron bands. This was treasure trove.
Jarvis fastened to the cottage and
with hammer and chissl pounded away
at the little box until its rottsd sides
fell inward and the iron bands crum-
bled to rusty fakes.
Pitiful indeed was the little treasure
contained In the tiny chest-a sailors
keepsakes. Bits Of coral and pretty
shells and stones, woman's lovely
face smiling from q tarnished frame,
q baby's drst photograph, the mothers
loving inscription penned on the back:
a few letters intimately tender from
wife to husband, copy Of win, Q
few months wages tied In little oilskin
sacks, the owners 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
vision-fOr such the painter believed
his strange adventure to be-must have
been the captain Of the Ill fated vessel
On the morrow he would inquire con-
cerning the wreck Of the Sea Nymph
and try to find the relatives OF James
PetreL
After that Jarvis tumbled into bed
and went to steep. 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. ut was
as far back as 1886 that the Sea
Nymph went ashore of here. She got
on the shoals, but the seas were riding
so hig. she didn't stick. Back she
went. and they simply swallowed her
up, SO the story goes. Bits Of cargo
fioated ashore long afterward-ons 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
breakwater and the lighthouse. At
that time there was an old fisherman's
hut on the spot where your cottage
now stands. Tradition has it that the
old man lured the steamer to her ruin.
II he did 1t was small profit TO him,
for the storm washed bis hut into the
sea, and he went with It. The man
who owns your cottage once found
copper canister filed with choice
smoking tobacco buried In the sand
near by. 1t pleased him to resurrect It
and smoke it. He quit using 1t after
awhile because. he claimed. 1t gave
him the nightmare-said the Sea
Nymph went ashore every night In his
dreams. If there's any Of 1t left you
better not smoke It," added the Oldest
cottager whimsically.
"It's all gone" replied jarvis. with a
cryptic smile. He did not think II
worth while to inform the old man
that his advice had come a little too
late.
And this is the treasure that Jarvis
found. When he had traced the widow
Of the luckless Captain Petrol he found
her prosperously married to one Of the
ships owners, while the curly headed
baby with the charming smile had
grown to be the loveliest girl Jarvis
had ever met AS consequence Doris
Petrol became the artists wife.
IN addition, the memory Of the vision
that had come to him that night clung
80 persistently In his mind that he
transferred the stormy scene to canvas
with every detail Of that wild night Of
thunder and lightning, hurricane winds
and mammoth waves, the ghostlikc
vessel shuddering to her watery grave.
the package on the beach half Obliter.
ated by the sand. Next to Doris her
self, this picture proved to be Jarvis
treasure, for 1t made his fortune.