The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-08-17

most interested spectator OF my
strange proceedings. Still no CLEAN OF
gold, merely demure rows OF plump
brown bags. With both hands /
reached for them. Oh, TO grasp them
all! | had TO be content with two. be
cause they were so heavy. so blessedly
heavyl
Il spread the square OF canvas on
the sand, cut the strings from the bags
and poured out-gold, gold All fair
shining golden coins they were. not a
paltry silver piece among them And
they made a soft golden music as
they fell in a glorious yellow heap.
Il don't know how long / sat there,
playing with my gold, running ii
through my fingers, clinking the coins
together In my palm. Benny came and
shifted at them indifferently, unable to
understand his masters preOccupation.
He thrust his nose into my face and
banked. and said as clearly as with
words, Come, hunt pigP
Benny l said, well leave the
pork alone just now. We have work
enough to count our money. We're
rich, old boy, rich, richP
''Of course, don't yet know exact
~ what the value of the treasure is
I have counted the bags In the chest;
there are one hundred and forty-eight
Each, so far as l have determined,
contains one thousand dOubloons,
which makes a total of one hundred
and forty-eight thousand. Estimating
each coin. for the sake of even figures,
at a value of seven dollars safe
minimum-you get one million, thirty
six thousand dollars. And as many
of the coins are ancient 1 ought to
reap a harvest from collectors.
Besides the coin, l found, rather
| surprisingly, laid between the upper
! layers of bags, silver crucifix about
nine inches long. II is Of very quaint
| old workmanship. and badly furnished.
! Its money value must be very trifling
| compared to the same bulk of golden
coins. l think 1t must have had some
| special character of sacredness which
led TO its preservation here. 1t is
strange to find such relic among a
treasure so stained by blood and
crime
| And now / have to think about
moving the gold. First of all must
get the chest itself aboard the Island.
Queen. This means that i shall have
to empty it and leave the gold in the
cave, while l get the chest out by
sea-. When the chest is safely in the
cabin of the sloop-where 1t won't
leave much room for Benny and his
| master, I'm afraid will take the
bags Of coin out by the land entrance.
l can't think Of risking my precious
doublOons In the voyage around the
point.
| "Of course l should have liked to
get to the task today, but after the
first mad thrill of the great event was
over, l found myself as weak and I'M
nerved as a woman. So by q great
effort came away and left my glori-
| Gus golden hoard. Now / dream and
glOat, playing with the idea that to-
| morrow l shall find it all a fantasy.
! The pleasure of this is, of course, that
all the while know this widest of
all Arabian fairy tales to be as real
as the most drab and sober fact of my
hitherto colorless life.
after all, on the way back from the
IScave Benny brought down pig. So he
is as well pleased with the day as /
am. Now 1 am sitting in the doorway
of my cabin, writing up my journal.
and trying to calm down enough to go
to bed If 1t were not for the swift
fading of daylight, | wound go back
to the cave for another peep into the
chest But all round the island the
sea is moaning with that peculiarly
melancholy note that comes with the
falling of night. The sea-birds have
risen from the cove and gone wheel
ing off in troops to their nests on the
cliffs. Somehow a curious dislike,
almost fear, of this wild, sea-girt, soil
tary place has come over me. long
for the sound of human voices, the
touch of human hands. 1 think of the
dead man lying there at the door of
the cave, its silent guardian for so
long / suppose he brooded once on
the thought of the gold as / do-per-
haps he has been brooding so these
ninety years! l wonder IL he Is
pleased that l, a stranger, have come
into possession of his secret hoard at
last7
"Oh. Helen, turn your heavenly face
on me-be my refuge from these shud-
dering unwholesOme thoughts! The
gold is for you-for you! Surely that
must cleanse it of its stains. must
loose the clutch of the dead hands
that strive to hold Il!
February IL. This morning ] wa:
early at the cave. Yes, there II was
the same wonder-chest that / haC
dreamed Of all night long. 1t was alb
surd how the tightness In my breast
relaxed.
'T began at once the work Of re
moving the bags from the chest and
stacking them in the corner of thu
/ oh I hof