The Washington herald., 1920-10-08
AN @. HENRY STORY
Buried Treasure

one lone. lorn constable, but
without results.
Then we. became better friends
and worse enemies than ever. We
foregathered in the back room
OF Snyder's saloon every after
noon after work, and played dom
inoes, and laid conversational
traps to find out from each other
IL anything had been discovered.
That is the. way of rivals. -
Now, Goodfoe Banks had a sar-
castle way OF displaying his own
learning and putting me in the
class that was reading Poor
Jane Ray" Well. I rather liked
Goodloe, and ! had a contempt
for his college learning, and /
was always regarded as good
And L was trying to find out -
he knew anything about May
Martha. so / endured his society.
In talking things over one aft
ernoon he said to me:
Suppose you do not find her,
Ed, whereby would you profit?
Miss Mangum' has a mind. Per-
haps it is yet uncultured, but she
is destined for higher things than
you could give her. l have talked
with no one who seemed to ap-
preciate more the enchantment of
the ancient poets and writers and
the modern cults that have assimi-
lated and expanded their phil
osophy of life. Don't you think
you are wasting your timo look
ing for her."
my idea" said I, "of a happy
home is an cight-room house in a
grove of liYe-oaks by the side Of
q charCa on a Texas prairie. \
piano" l went on, with an auto
matte player in tho sitting-room.
1900 head of cattlo under fence
for q starter, a blackboard and
ponies always hitchcd at a post
for the missus'-and May Martha
Mangum to spend the profits Of
the renah as she pleases, and to
abide with me, and put my slippers
and pipe away every day in places
where they cannot be found OF
evenings. That" said I. is what
is to be; and a fig-a dried.
Smyrna, Dago-stsnd fig-for your
curriculutns, cults. and philoso-
ply"
she is meant for higher
things" repeated Goodloe Banks.
Whatever she is meant for"
answered, Just now she is out
of pocket. And l shall find her
as soon as I can without the aid
Of the colleges"
The game is blocked" said
Goodloe, putting down a domino;
and we had the beer.
Shortly after that Young
farmer whom l knew came into
town and brought me a folded
blue paper. He said his grand
father had just died. concealed
tear and he went on to say that
the old man had jealousy guard
ed this paper for twenty years.
He left it to his family as part
OF his estate, the rest OF which
consisted of two mules and a
hypotenuse of nonarablc land.
The sheet of paper was Of the
old. blue kind used during the
rebellion of the abolitionists
against the secessionists. 1t was
dated June II, 1853. and it de-.
scribed the hiding place Of ten
burro-Iosds OF gold and silver
coin valued at $500, 600. Old Ru.
dIe-grandfather of his grandson.
Sam-was given the information
by Spanish priest who was in on
the trsasure-burrying, and who
died many years before-no, after
ward in old Rundle's house. Old
Hundle wrote it down from dicta-
ton.
Why didn't your father look
this up" I asked young Rundlc.
He went blinde before he could
do So" he replied.
Why didn't you hunt for it
yourself?" I asked.
We'll" said he. I've onlv
known about the paper for ten
years. First there was the spring
ploughin' to do, and then chopin
the weeds out OF the corn. and
then come takin' fodder, and
mighty soon winter was on us.
1t seemed to run along that way
year after year"
That sounded perfectly reason
able. to me, so 1 took il UP with
young Lee Rundle at once.
The directions on the paper
were simple. The whole burro
csvalcade laden with the treasure
started from an old Spanish mis-
sion in Dolores County. They
travelled due south by the com
pass until they reached the Ala
mlto River. They forded this and
buried the treasure on the top
Of a little mountain SHAPED like
A pack saddle standing in a row
between two higher ones. \ heap
OF stones marked the place Of the
buried treasure. All the party
except the Spanish priest were
Killed by Indians a few days later.
The secret was a monopoly. 1t
looked good to me.
Lee Rumble suggested that we
rig out a camping outfit. hire a
surveyor to run out the line from
the Spanish mission, and then
spend the. s300.00O seeing the
sights in Fort Worth. But. with
out being highly educatcd,-I I knew
a way TO save time and expense.
We went to the State land Office
and had a: practical. what they
call a working" sketch made Of
all the surveys of land from the
old mission to the Alamito River.
On this map l drew a line due
southward to the river. The
length of lines of each survey and
section of land was accurately
given on the sketch. BY these
we found the point on the river
and had Connection" made
with it and an important, we'll
identified corner of the Los AMI
mos five-league survey-a grant
10 h,y