Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-02-03
CHAPTER lx-continued.>

marked B. III. on the ground above 1t,
but l fear that a search after BilPs
tombstone would be hopeless. Under
circumstances such as those Of the
mates story, it 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 l 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 a smooth old
scOundreI 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 it was deeply buried,
which it 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 I am certain placid old
Heintz did not mislead me. Besides,
at Panama, he was making arrange
ments to go with some other Germans
on a small business venture to Samoa,
which he would not have been likely
to do If he had just unearthed q vast
fortune in buried treasure. Still, |
shall explore the cave thoroughly,
though with little hope.
"Oh, Helen, if I could watch these
tropic stars with you tonight!
January 6. think 1 am through
with the cave under the point-the
Cavern Of the Two Arches, l have
named it. 1 peered into every crevice
In the walls, and sounded the sands
with a drill. l suppose I would have
made a more thorough job of it If l
had not been convinced from the first
that the chest was not there. Shall
ever forget the feeling that stirred
me when first / 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?
My grandfather had gone as supercar-
go in his own ship, and while he did
a 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-
erous plague-ridden city, found in
him a friend, as did the mate of the
Bonny Lass in his dying hour. Oh,
If my good grandfather mad but made
sure from the mans own lips exact
Nv 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
I rambIe l was going to say, that
from the moment whe1 1 learned from
my grandfather's diary Of the exist
ence Of the treasure, I have been driv-
EN- by an impulse more overmaster-
ing than anything J. have ever expert
enced in my life. 1t was, l believe,
what old-fashioned pfous folk would
call leading. All my life 1 had been
frresolute, the sport of circumstances,
frifng with this and that, unable to
set my face steadfastly toward any
goal. Yet never, since / have trodden
this path, have 1 looked to right or
left. l have defied both human opin-
ion and the obstacles which an I'M
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
I'm my little sloop for voyage of
three hundred miles on the loneIiest
wastes Of the Pacific All alone, did
say? No, there was Benny the faith
full. His head is at my knee as
write. He knows, I think, that his
masters mood is sad tonight. Oh.
Helen, If you ever see these lines will
you realize how 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 I. Since my last record
my time has been well filed. In the
Island Queen 1 have been surveying
the coasts of my domain, sailing as
close in as 1 dared, and taking note
of every crevice that might be the
mouth of a cave. Then, either In the
Towboat or by scrambling down the
cliffs, l visit the indicated point 1t is
bitterly hard ,abor, but it has its com
bensations. l am growing hale and
strong, brown and muscular.
$50 tar / have discovered half a
dozen caves, most Of them quite small.
ANY one of them seemed such a likely
place that at first I was quite hopeful
But l have found nothing. Usually
the floor Of the cave beneath a few
inches Of sand is rock. Only in the
great cave under the point have /
found sand to any depth. go always
On the principle that Captain Sampson
and his two assistants had not time
for any elaborate work of concealment.
Most likely they laid the chest in some
natural niche. Sailors are unskiIled
In the use of such implements as
spades. and besides, the very heart of
the undertaking was haste and Sc
crecy. They must have worked at
night and between two tides, for few
Of the caves can be reached except at
The ebb. And take 1t as certain that
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