Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-12-24
COPYRIGHT
THE BOBBS MERRILL
COMPANY

elBileeH across, WIN an opening OF
the narrow strip of beach / had seer
from the top of the cliffs.
'The roof Is high, with an effect OF
Gothic 1rches. Near the mouth Is q
tiny spring of ice-cold water, which
has worn a clean rock channel for
itself to the sea. Otherwise the cave
is perfectly dry. There Is no doubt
In my mind that in the great buc-
caneerlng days Of the Seventeenth
century, and probably much later, the
place was the haunt of pirates. One
fancies that Captain Sampson Of the
Bonny Lass may have known Of 1t be-
fore he brought the treasure to the
island. There were queer folk to be
met with In those days In the west
ern ocean. Yes, the a v has seen
many a fierce, s~ea-tanned face and
tarry pigtail, and echoed to strange
oaths and wild sea-songs. Men had
carved those steps In the passage
thirty-twO of them. In the sand Of
the floor, as | kicked 1t up with my
feet, hoping rather childishly to strike
the corner of the chest, l found the
hilt and part of the blade of a rusty
c~utlass, and a chased silver shoe
buckle. / shall take the buckle home
to Helen-and yet how trivial 1t will
seem, with all else that / have to Of
fer her! Nevertheless she will prize
1t as my gift, and because 1t comes
from the place to which some kind
angel led me for her sake.
Il left the cave and hurried back to
the cabin for a spade, walking on air,
breaking with snatches of song the
terrible stiffness of the woods, where
one hears only the high itful signing
Of the wind, or the eternal mutter Of
the sea.
Back In the cave, / set to work
feverishly, making the light sand fly.
At the end of half an hour, at a point
close to the angle Of the wall my
spade struck a hard surface. 1t lay
should judge, under about two feet
of sand. Soon had laid bare q patch
of dark wood which rang under my
k~nuckles almost like iron. A littla
more, and | had cleared away thu
send from the top Of a large chess
with a convex lid, heavily bound in
brass.
"Furiously | flung the sand aside
until the chest stood free for half its
depth-which is roughly three feet. 1t
has handles at the ends, great hand
wrought loops of metal. l tugged my
hardest, but the chest seemed fast in
Its place as the native rock. !
laughed %exultantly. The weight meant
gold-goldl had hammer and chisel
with me, and with these | forced the
massive ancient locks. There were
three of them, n for each strip Of
brass which bound the chest. Then |
flung up the lid.
mo glittering treasure dazzled me.
| saw only a surface of stained AN
vas, tucked In carefully around the
edges. This l tore off and flung aside
-eclipsing poor Benny, who was a
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
II spread the square Of canvas on
the sand, cut the strings from the bags
and poured out--gold, gold! All fair
golden coins they were, not a
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 l sat there.
with my gold, running IL
my fingers, blinking the coins
together In my palm. Benny came and
at them lndifferently, unable TO
understand his masters preoccupatin.
He thrust his nose into my face and
and said as clearly as with
words, Come, hunt pigv
"'Benjy,' l said, wen leave the
pork alone just now. We have work
to count III money. We're
old boy, rich, rich!
"Of course, / don't yet know exact
" what the value Of the treasure Is.
have counted the bags in the chest;
are one hundred and forty-eight.
Each, so far as / have determined,
one thousand doubloons,
which makes q total Of one hundred
md forty-eight thousand. Estimating
zach coin, for the sake of ever figures,
a value of seven dollars-a safe
ninimum-you get n million, thirty.
six thousand dollars. And as many
IF the coins are ancient / ought to
reap a harvest from collectors.
Besides the coin, | found, rather
surprisingly, laid between the upper
ayers Of bags, n silver crucifx about
nine inches long. II is Of very quaint
Did workmanship, and badly furnished.
Its money value must be very trifling,
compared to the same bulk of golden
coins. | think 1t must have had some
special character of sacredness which
ed TO its preservation here. 1t IL
to find such a relic among q
treasure so stained by blood ant
(To BE CoNTINUED)
Ma ChrlnAo In Crh1aI. |