The Ordway new era., 1922-03-03
(cHAPrER DISCONTINUED,

have been unable to find any stone
marked B. II. on the ground above 1t,
but l fear that a search after Bill's
tombstone would be hopeless. Under
circumstances such as those of the
mates story, 1t seems to me that all
the probabilities point to their con-
cealing the chest in the cave with
an opening on the bay. To get the
boat. laden with the heavy chest,
through the surf to any of the other
caves-if the various cracks and fis-
sures 1 have seen are indeed properly
to be called caves-would be stiff
work for three men. Yes, everything
Indicates the cavern under the point.
The only question Is, isn't it indicated
too clearly? Would smooth old
scoundrel such as this Captain Samp-
son must have been have hidden his
treasure in the very place certain to
be ransacked If the secret ever got
out? Unless 1t was deeply buried,
which 1t could have been only at GER
tain stages of the tide, even old Heintz
would have been apt to run across 1t
In the course of his desultory re-
searches for the riches of the buc-
cancers. And 1 am certain placid old
Heintz did not mislead me. Besides.
at Panama, he was making arrange
ments to go with some other Germans
on small business venture to Samoa,
which he would not have been likely
to do If he had just unearthed vast
fortune in buried treasure. Still, I
shall explore the cave thoroughly,
though with little hope.
"Oh, Helen, II I could watch these
tropic stars with you tonight!
January 6. 1 think 1 am through
with the cave under the point-the
Cavern Of the Two Arches. 1 have
named 1t. peered into every crevice
in the walls, and sounded the sands
with drill. suppose would have
made more thorough job Of 1t If I
had not been convinced from the first
that the chest was not there. Shall
I ever forget the feeling that stirred
me when first 1 turned the pages Of
my grandfather's diary and saw there,
in his faded writing. the story of the
mate Of the Bonny Lass, who died In
Havana in my grandfather's arms?
Ny grandfather had gone as supercar-
60 in his own ship, and while he did
good stroke of business In Havana
trust his shrewd Yankee Instincts for
that-he managed to combine the
service Of God with that Of Mammon.
Many a poor drunken sailor, taking
his fling ashore in the bright, treach-
v1I1 v,t Ott tn
him friend, as did the mate Of the
Bonny Lass in his dying hour. Oh,
If my good grandfather had but made
sure from the mans own lips exact
ly where the treasure lay 1t is
enough to make one fancy that the
unknown Bill. who paid for too much
knowledge with his life, has his own
fashion of guarding the hoard. But
1 ramble. was going to say, that
from the moment when 1 learned from
my grandfather's diary of the exist
ence of the treasure, have been driv-
en- by an impulse more overmaster-
ing than anything l have ever expert
enced in my life. 1t was, l believe,
what old-fashioned pious folk would
call leading. All my life 1 had been
irresolute, the sport of circumstances,
trIfing with this and that. unable to
set my face steadfastly toward any
goal. Yet never, since l have trodden
this path, have I looked to right or
left. / have defied both human opin-
ion and the obstacles which an un-
friendly fate has thrown in my way.
All alone, I, a sailor hitherto of pleas
ure-craft among the bays and islands
of the New England coast, put forth
in nv little sloop for voyage of
three hundred miles on the loneliest
wastes of the Pacific. All alone, did
saw? No, there was Benny the faith
full. His head is at my knee as
write. He knows, think, that his
masters mood is sad tonight. Oh,
Helen. If you ever see these lines will
YOU realize how 1 have longed for you
how it sometimes seems that my soul
must tear itself loose from my body
and speed to you across half world!
February /. Since my last record
my time has been well filled. In the
Island Queen I have been surveying
the coasts Of my domain, sailing as
close in as I dared. and taking note
of every crevice that might be the
mouth of a cave. Then, either in the
rowboat or by scrambling down the
cliffs, visit the indicated point. 1t is
bitterly hard labor, but 1t has Its COM
pensations. 1 am growing hale and
strong, brown and muscular.
$50 far l have discovered half
dozen caves. most of them quite small.
Any one Of them; seemed such likely
Mace that at first I was quite hopeful.
But l have found nothing. Usually
the floor Of the cave beneath a rev
inches Of sand ID rock. Only In the
great cave under the point have I