The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-08-20
Book I'll
In Which We Gather sheIIs--and
Other Matters.

Ing not being one of my passions,
there was nothing to detain me In An
dros. So we were soon under way, out
OF the river, and heading north up the
western shore of the big HOMOGENEOUS
island. We had some fifty miles to
make before we reached it's northern
extremity-and, all the way, we sell
dom had more than two fathoms of
wnter. and the coast was the same In
terminable line of mangroves and
thatch palms. with occasional clumps
Of pine trees, and here and there the
mouth of creek, leading into duck
haunted swamps.
At last we came to little foam
fringed cay, where II was conceivable
that the shyest and rarest shell
would choose to make It's home--a tiny
aristocrat. driven out of the broad
tideways by the coafser ambitions and
the ruder strength of great molluscs
that feed and grow fat and house
themselves In crude conyolutions of
uncouthly striving horn.
1t was impossible to imagine a cay
better answering to my conchologist's
description Of Short Shrift island. It's
situation and general character. too.
bore out the surmise. On landing. also.
we found that II answered In two i'm
portant particulars to- Tobias narra-
tive. We found, as he had declared,
that there was good water there for
passing ships. Also. we found in adj
dition to the usual scrub, that cab
bage-wood trees grew there very plen-
tifully, particularly, as he said. on the
highest part of the island. So, having
talked 1t all over with Tom, / decided
that here we would stay for time
and try our luck.
But. first, having heard from the
sponging captain that he was en- route
for Nassau. gave him a letter to
Charlie Webster. telling him Of our
whereabouts. In case he should have
sudden need Of me with regard to To-
| bias.
The reader may recall that Tobias
narrative In reference to his second
pod" Of one million dollars had run:
! ION the highest point Of this Short
Shrift island Is large cabbage-wood
stump, and twenty feet south Of that
stump IL the treasure, buried five feet
deep and can be found without dim
Guilty" But which was the highest
point? There were several hillocks
that might claim to be that-all about
equal In height.
However. as the high points Of the
island were only seven In all. 1t was
no difficult matter to try them all out,
one by one ms we had plenty Of time
and plenty Of hands for the work. For,
of course, 1t would have been idle to
attempt any concealment of my object
from the crew. Therefore, took them
from their shell-gathering and, having
duly measured out twenty feet south
from each promising cabbage-wood
stump, set them to work. They worked
with will, for / promised them
generous share Of whatever we found.
Alasl ii was an inexpensive prom
Use, for. when we had duly turned up
the ground. not only twenty feet, but
thirty, forty and fifty feet, not only
south but north, east and west of the
various cabbage-wood stumps on the
seven various eminences, we were
none Of us the richer by single piece
Of eight. Then we tried the other cab
bage-wood stumps on lower ground,
and any other likely-looking spots, till,
after working for nearly a fortnight,
we must have dug up most Of the
island.
And then Tom came to me with the
news that our provisions were begin
ming to give out. AS 1t was, he said,
before we returned to Nassau, we
should have to put In at Flying Fish
Cove--a small settlement on the lar
ger island some five miles to the nor
'ard-for the purchase Of various ne
cessities.
"All right, Tom," said, II guess the
game is upl Let's start out tomorrow
morning. You may as well have your
sucking fish back, Tom." said,
laughing In self-disgust. Il shall have
no more need of 1t. / am through
with treasure hunting"
.rd keep 1t little longer, sar," an
swered Tom "you never know"
had made up my mind to start on
the homeward trip early the following
morning, but something happened
that very evening to change ny plans.
had dropped into the little settle
ment's one store. to buy some tobac-
CO, the only kind that Charlie Webster
declared fit to smoke.
stayed chatting with the store
keeper-a lean. astute-looking English
man. with the un-English name Of
Sweeney-who made a pretty good
thing Of selling his motley Merchandise
to the poor natives. on the good old
business principle Of supplying goods
Of the poorest possible quality at the
highest possible prices.
While he was attending a little
group Of customers had wandered to-
ward the back of the store, curiously
examining the thousand and one com.
modities which supplied the strange
needs of humanity here In this lost