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diff --git a/23804.txt b/23804.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f031c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/23804.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1245 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Pirate Hoard, by Thomas A. Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Pirate Hoard + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR PIRATE HOARD *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +OUR PIRATE HOARD. + +By Thomas A. Janvier + +Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + + + + +I + +My great-great-great-uncle was one of the many sturdy, honest, +high-spirited men to whom the early years of the last century gave +birth. He was a brave man and a ready fighter, yet was he ever +controlled in his actions by so nice a regard for the feelings of +others, and through the strong fibre of his hardy nature ran a strain +of such almost womanly gentleness and tenderness, that throughout +the rather exceptionally wide circle of his acquaintance he was very +generally beloved. + +By profession he was a pirate, and although it is not becoming in me, +perhaps, to speak boastingly of a blood-relation, I would be doing his +memory injustice did I not add that he was one of the ablest and most +successful pirates of his time. His usual cruising-ground was between +the capes of the Chesapeake and the lower end of Long Island; yet now +and then, as opportunity offered, he would take a run to the New England +coast, and in winter he frequently would drop down to the s'uthard and +do a good stroke of business off the Spanish Main. His home station, +however, was the Delaware coast, and his family lived in Lewes, being +quite the upper crust of Lewes society as it then was constituted. When +his schooner, the _Martha Ann_, was off duty, she usually was harbored +in Rehoboth Bay. That was a pretty good harbor for pirate schooners in +those days. + +My great-great-great-uncle threw himself into his profession in the +hearty fashion that was to be expected from a man of his sincere, +earnest character. He toiled early and late at sea, and on shore he +regulated the affairs of his family so that his expenses should be well +within his large though somewhat fluctuating income; and the result of +his prudence in affairs was that he saved the greater portion of what he +earned. The people of Lewes respected him greatly, and the boys of +the town were bidden to emulate his steady business ways and habit of +thrift. He was, too, a man of public spirit. At his own cost and charge +he renewed the town pump; and he presented the church--he was a very +regular churchgoer when on shore--with a large bell of singularly sweet +tone that had come into his possession after a casual encounter with a +Cuban-bound galleon off the Bahama Banks. + +And yet when at last my great-great-great-uncle, in the fulness of his +years and virtues, was gathered to his fathers, and the sweet-toned +Spanish bell tolled his requiem, everybody was very much surprised to +find that of the fine fortune accumulated during his successful business +career nothing worth speaking of could be found. The house that he owned +in Lewes, the handsome furniture that it contained, and a sea-chest in +which were some odds and ends of silverware (of a Spanish make) and some +few pieces-of-eight and doubloons, constituted the whole of his visible +wealth. + +For my great-great-great-aunt, with a family of five sons and seven +daughters (including three sets of twins) all under eleven years of age, +the outlook was a sorry one. She was puzzled, too, to think what had +gone with the great fortune which certainly had existed, and so was +everybody else. The explanation that finally was adopted was that my +great-great-great-uncle, in accordance with well established pirate +usage, had buried his treasure somewhere, and had taken the secret of +its burial-place with him to another and a better world. Probability was +given to this conjecture by the fact that he had died in something of a +hurry. He had been brought ashore by his men after an unexpected (and +by him uninvited) encounter with a King's ship off the capes of the +Delaware. One of his legs was shot off, and his head was pretty well +laid open by a desperate cutlass slash. He already was in a raging +fever, and although the best medical advice in Lewes was procured, he +died that very night. As he lay dying his talk was wild and incoherent; +but at the very last, as my great-great-great-aunt well remembered, +he suddenly grew calm, straightened himself in the bed, and said, with +great earnestness: "Sheer up the plank midway--" + +That was all. He did not live to finish the sentence. At the moment, +my great-great-great-aunt believed the words to be nothing more than a +delirious use of a professional phrase; and this belief received color +from the fact that a little before, in his feverish fancy, he had been +capturing a Spanish galleon, and had got about to the part of the affair +where the sheering up of a plank midway between the main and mizzen +masts, for the accommodation of the Spaniards in leaving their vessel, +would be appropriate. Thinking the matter over calmly afterwards, and in +the light of subsequent events, she came to the conclusion that he was +trying to tell her how and where his treasure was hid. Acting upon this +belief, she sheered up all the planks about the house that seemed at all +promising. She even had the cellar dug up and the well dragged. But not +a scrap of the treasure did she ever find. + +And the worst part of it was, that from that time onward our family +had no luck at all. Excepting my elderly cousin, Gregory Wilkinson--who +inherited a snug little fortune from his mother, and expanded it into +a very considerable fortune by building up a large manufacture of +carpet-slippers for the export trade--the rule in my family has been a +respectable poverty that has just bordered upon actual want. But all the +generations since my great-great-great-uncle's time have been cheered, +as poverty-stricken people naturally would be cheered, by the knowledge +that the pirate hoard was in existence; and by the hope that some day it +would be found, and would make them all enormously rich at a jump. +From the moment when I first heard of the treasure, as a little boy, I +believed in it thoroughly; and I also believed that I was the member of +the family destined to discover it. + + + + +II. + +I was glad to find, when I married Susan, that she believed in my +destiny too. After talking the matter over quite seriously, we decided +that the best thing for us to do was to go and live either in or near +Lewes, so that my opportunities for investigation might be ample. I +think, too, that Susan was pleased with the prospect of having a nice +little house of our own, with a cow and peach-trees and chickens, +where we could be very happy together. Moreover, she had notions about +house-keeping, especially about house-keeping in the country, which she +wanted to put into practice. + +We found a confirmation of my destiny in the ease with which the +preliminaries of my search were accomplished. The house that we wanted +seemed to be there just waiting for us--a little bit of a house, well +out in the country, with a couple of acres of land around it, the +peach-trees really growing, and a shed that the man said would hold a +cow nicely. What I think pleased Susan most of all was a swallow's nest +under the eaves, with the mother swallow sitting upon a brood of dear +little swallows, and the father swallow flying around chippering like +anything. + +"Just think of it!" said the dear child; "it is like living in a feudal +castle, and having kestrels building their nests on the battlements." + +I did not check her sweet enthusiasm by asking her to name some +particular feudal castle with a frieze of kestrels' nests. I kissed her, +and said that it was very like indeed. + +Then we examined the cow-stable--we thought it better to call it a +cow-stable than a shed--and I pulled out my foot-rule and measured it +inside. It was a very little cow-stable, but, as Susan suggested, if +we could not get a small grown-up cow to fit it, "we might begin with a +young cow, and teach her, as she grew larger, to accommodate herself to +her quarters by standing cat-a-cornered, like the man who used to carry +oxen up a mountain." Susan's allusions are not always very clearly +stated, though her meaning, no doubt, always is quite clear in her own +mind. I may mention here that eventually we were so fortunate as to +obtain a middle-sized cow that got along in the stable very well. We +had a tidy colored girl who did the cooking and the rough part of the +house-work, and who could milk like a steam-engine. + +As soon as we got fairly settled in our little home I began to look for +my great-great-great-uncle's buried treasure, but I cannot say that +at first I made much progress. I could not even find a trace of my +great-great-great-uncle's house in Lewes, and nobody seemed ever to have +heard of him. One day, though, I was so fortunate as to encounter a very +old man--known generally about Lewes as Old Jacob--who did remember "the +old pirate," as he irreverently called him, and who showed me where his +house had been. The house had burned down when he was a boy--seventy +years back, he thought it was--and across where it once had stood a +street had been opened. This put a stop to my search in that direction. +As Susan very justly observed, I could not reasonably expect the Lewes +people to let me dig up their streets like a gas-piper just on the +chance of finding my family fortune. + +I was not very much depressed by this turn of events, for I was pretty +certain in my own mind that my great-great-great-uncle had not buried +his treasure on his own premises. The basis of this belief was +the difficulty--that must have been even greater in his time--of +transporting such heavy substances as gold and silver across the sandy +region between Lewes and where the _Martha Ann_ used to lie at anchor +in Rehoboth Bay. I reasoned that, the burial being but temporary, my +relative would have been much more likely to have interred his valuables +at some point on the land only a short distance from the _Martha Ann's_ +anchorage. When I mentioned this theory to Susan she seemed to be very +much impressed by the common-sense of it, and as I have a great respect +for Susan's judgment, her acquiescence in my views strengthened my own +faith in them. + +To pursue my search in the neighborhood of Rehoboth Bay it was necessary +that I should have the assistance of some person thoroughly familiar +with the coast thereabouts. After thinking the matter over I decided +that I could not do better than take Old Jacob into my confidence. So I +got the old man out to the Swallow's Nest--that was the name that Susan +had given our country place: only by the time that she had settled upon +it the little swallows had grown up and the whole swallow family had +gone away--under pretence of seeing if the cow was all right (Old Jacob +was a first-rate hand at cow doctoring), and while he was looking at the +cow I told him all about the buried treasure, and how I wanted him +to help me find it. When I put it in his head this way he remembered +perfectly the story that used to be told about the old pirate's +mysteriously lost fortune, and he entered with a good deal of spirit +into my project for getting it again. Of course I told him that if we +did find it he should have a good slice of it for helping me. I told +Susan that I had made this promise, and she said that I had done exactly +right. So, after we had given him a good supper, Old Jacob went back to +Lewes, promising that early the next week, after he had got through a +job of boat-painting which he had on hand, he would go over with me, and +we would begin operations on the bay. He seemed to think the case very +promising. He said that when he was only a tot of a boy his father had +pointed out to him the _Martha Ann's_ anchorage, and that he thought he +could tell to within a cable's length of where the schooner used to +lie. I did not know how long a cable was, but from the tone in which +Old Jacob spoke of it I judged that it must be short. I felt very well +pleased with the progress that I was making, and when I told Susan all +that Old Jacob had told me, she said that she looked upon the whole +matter as being as good as settled. Indeed, she kept me awake quite +a while that night while she sketched the outlines of the +journey in Europe that we would take as soon as I could get my +great-great-great-uncle's treasure dug up, and its non-interest-bearing +doubloons converted into interest-bearing bonds. + + + + +III. + +The day after I had this talk with Old Jacob I was rather surprised by +getting a telegram from my cousin Gregory Wilkinson, telling me that he +was coming down to pay us a visit, and would be there that afternoon. I +was not as much astonished as I would have been if the telegram had come +from anybody else, because Gregory Wilkinson had a way of telegraphing +that he was going to do things which nobody expected him to do, and I +was used to it. Moreover, I had every reason for desiring to maintain +very friendly relations with him. He had told me several times that he +had made a will by which his large fortune was to be divided between +me and a certain Asylum for the Relief and Education of Destitute Red +Indian Children that he was very much interested in; and he had more +than hinted that the asylum was not the legatee that was the more to be +envied. This made me feel quite comfortable about the remote future, but +it did not simplify the problem of living comfortably in the immediate +present. My cousin was a very tough, wiry little man, barely turned of +fifty. There was any quantity of life left in him--his father, who had +been just such another, had lived till he was eighty-nine. There was not +much of a chance, therefore, that either the asylum or I would receive +anything from his estate for ever so long--and I may add I was very +glad, for my part, that things were that way. Gregory Wilkinson was a +first-rate fellow, for all his queerness and sudden ways, and I should +have been sorry enough to have been his chief heir. One reason why I +liked him so much was because he was so fond of Susan. When we were +married--although he had not seen her then--he sent her forks, and he +had lived up to those forks ever since. + +Susan was rather flustered when I showed her the telegram; but she went +to work with a will, and got the little spare room in order, and stewed +some peaches and made some biscuits for supper. Susan's biscuits were +something extraordinary. Gregory Wilkinson came all right, and after +supper--he said that it was the nicest supper he had eaten in a long +while--she did the honors of the Swallow's Nest in the pretty way that +is her especial peculiarity. She showed him the cow-stable, with the cow +in it, and the colored girl milking away in her usual vigorous fashion, +the chickens, the garden, the peach-trees, and the nest under the eaves +where the swallows had lived when we first came there. Then, as it grew +dark, we sat on the little veranda while we smoked our cigars--that is, +Gregory Wilkinson and I smoked: all that Susan did was to try to poke +her finger through the rings which I blew towards her--and I told why we +had come down there, and what a good start we had made towards finding +my great-great-great-uncle's buried money. And when I had got through, +Susan told how, as soon as I had found it, we were going to Europe. + +We neither of us thought that Gregory Wilkinson manifested as much +enthusiasm in the matter as the circumstances of the case demanded; but +then, as Susan pointed out to me, in her usual clear-headed way, it was +not reasonable to expect a man with a fortune to be as eager to get one +as a man without one would be. + +"Very likely he'll give us his share for finding it," said Susan; "he +don't want it himself, and it would be dreadful to turn the heads of all +those destitute red Indian children by leaving it to them." + +I should have mentioned earlier that, so far as we knew, my cousin and I +were my great-great-great-uncle's only surviving heirs. The family +luck had not held out any especially strong temptations in the way of +pleasant things to live for, and so the family gradually had died off. +Whatever my search should bring to light, therefore, would be divided +between us two. + +By the time that Old Jacob got through with his boat-painting, Gregory +Wilkinson had gathered a sufficient interest in our money-digging to +volunteer to go along with us to the bay. We had a two-seated wagon, +and I took with me several things which I thought might be useful in +an expedition of this nature--two spades, a pickaxe, a crow-bar, a +measuring tape that belonged to Susan, an axe, and a lantern (for, as +Susan very truly said, we might have to do some of our digging after +dark). I took also a pulley and a coil of rope, in case the box of +treasure should prove so heavy that we could not otherwise pull it out +from the hole. Old Jacob knew all about rigging tackle, and said that +we could cut a pair of sheer-poles in the woods. We were very much +encouraged by the confident way in which Old Jacob talked about cutting +sheer-poles; it sounded wonderfully business-like. Susan, of course, was +very desirous of going along, and I very much wanted to take her. But +as we intended to stay all night, in case we did not find the treasure +during our first day's search, and as the only place where we could +sleep was an oysterman's shanty that Old Jacob knew about, she saw +herself that it would not do. So she made the best of staying at home, +in her usual cheery fashion, and promised, as we drove off, to have a +famous supper ready for us the next night--when we would come home with +our wagon-load of silver and gold. + +It was a long, hot, dusty drive, and the mosquitoes were pretty bad +as we drew near the coast. But we were cheered by the thought of +the fortune that was so nearly ours, and we smoked our pipes at the +mosquitoes in a way that astonished them. After we had taken out the +horses and had eaten our dinner (Susan had put us up a great basket of +provisions, with two of her own delicious peach pies on top) we walked +down to the bay-side, with Old Jacob leading, to look for the place +where the _Martha Ann_ used to anchor. I took the tape-measure along, +both because it might be useful, and because it made me think of Susan. + +I was sorry to find that the clearer the lay of the land and water +became, the more indistinct grew Old Jacob's remembrance of where his +father had told him that the schooner used to lie. + +"It mought hev ben about here," he said, pointing across to a little bay +some way off on our left; "an' agin it mought hev ben about thar," with +a wave of his hand towards a low point of land nearly half a mile off +on our right; "an' agin it mought hev ben sorter atwixt an' at ween 'em. +Here or hereabouts, thet's w'at I say; here or hereabouts, sure." + +Now this was perplexing. My plan, based upon Old Jacob's assurance that +he could locate the anchorage precisely, was to hunt near the shore for +likely-looking places and dig them up, one after another, until we +found the treasure. But to dig up all the places where treasure might be +buried along a whole mile of coast was not to be thought of. We implored +Old Jacob to brush up his memory, to look attentively at the shape of +the coast, and to try to fix definitely the spot off which the schooner +had lain. But the more that he tried, the more confusing did his +statements become. Just as he would settle positively--after much +thinking and much looking at the sun and the coast line--on a particular +spot, doubts would arise in his mind as to the correctness of his +location; and these doubts presently would resolve themselves into +the certainty that he was all wrong. Then the process of thinking and +looking would begin all over again, only again to come to the same +disheartening end. The short and long of the matter was that we spent +all that day and a good part of the next in wandering along the bay-side +in Old Jacob's wake, while he made and unmade his locations at the +rate of about three an hour. At last I looked at Gregory Wilkinson and +Gregory Wilkinson looked at me, and we both nodded. Then we told Old +Jacob that we guessed we'd better hitch up the horses and drive home. It +made us pretty dismal, after all our hopes, to hitch up the horses and +drive home that way. + +My heart ached when I saw Susan leaning over the front gate watching for +us as we drove up the road. The wind was setting down towards us, and I +could smell the coffee that she had put on the fire to boil as soon as +she caught sight of us--Susan made coffee splendidly--and I knew that +she had kept her promise, and had ready the feast that was to celebrate +our success; and that made it all the dismaller that we hadn't any +success to celebrate. + +When I told her how badly the expedition had turned out she came very +near crying; but she gave a sort of gulp, and then laughed instead, and +did what she could to make things pleasant for us. We had our feast, but +notwithstanding Susan's effort to be cheerful, it was about as dreary a +feast as I ever had anything to do with. We brought Old Jacob in and let +him feast with us; and he, to do him justice, was not dreary at all. +He seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. Indeed, the most trying part of that +sorrowful supper-party was the way in which Old Jacob recovered his +spirits and declared at short intervals that his memory now was +all right again. He even went so far as to say that with his eyes +blindfolded and in the dark he could lead us to the precise spot off +which the schooner used to lie. + +Susan was disposed to regard these assertions hopefully; but we, who +had been fumbling about with him for two days, well understood their +baselessness. It was not Old Jacob's fault, of course, but his defective +memory certainly was dreadfully provoking. Here was an enormous fortune +slipping through our lingers just because this old man could not +remember a little matter about where a schooner had been anchored. + +After he had eaten all the supper that he could hold--which was a good +deal--and had gone home, we told Susan the whole dismal story of how our +expedition had proved to be a total failure. It was best, we thought, +not to mince matters with her; and we stated minutely how time after +time the anchorage of the schooner had been precisely located, and then +in a little while had been unlocated again. She saw, as we did, that as +a clew Old Jacob was not much of a success, and also that he was about +the only thing in the least like a clew that we possessed. Realizing +this latter fact, and knowing that his great age made his death probable +at any moment, Susan strongly advised me, in her clear-sighted way, to +have him photographed. + + + + +IV. + +Gregory Wilkinson seemed to find himself quite comfortable in our little +home, and settled down there into a sort of permanency. We were glad to +have him stay with us, for he was a first-rate fellow, and always good +company in his pleasant, quiet way, and he told us two or three times +that he was enjoying himself. He told me a great many more than two or +three times that he considered Susan to be a wonderfully fine woman; +indeed, he told me this at least once every day, and sometimes oftener. +He was greatly struck--just as everybody is who lives for any length +of time in the same house with Susan--by her capable ways, and by her +unfailing equanimity and sweetness of temper. Even when the colored girl +fell down the well, carrying the rope and the bucket along with her, +Susan was not a bit flustered. She told me just where I would find the +clothes-line and a big meat-hook; and when, with this hastily-improvised +apparatus, we had fished the colored girl up and got her safely on +dry land again, she knew exactly what to do to make her all right and +comfortable. As Gregory Wilkinson observed to me, after it was all over, +from the way that Susan behaved, any one might have thought that hooking +colored girls up out of wells was her regular business. + +As to making Susan angry, that simply was impossible. When things went +desperately wrong with her in any way she would just come right to me +and cry a little on my shoulder. Then, when I had comforted her, she +would chipper up and be all right again in no time. Gregory Wilkinson +happened to come in one day while a performance of this sort was going +on, and for fear that he should think it odd Susan explained to him that +it was a habit of hers when things very much worried her and she felt +like being ugly to people. (The trouble that day was that the colored +girl, who had a wonderful faculty for stirring up tribulation, had +broken an India china teacup that had belonged to Susan's grandmother, +and that Susan had thought the world of.) That evening, while we were +sitting on the veranda smoking, and before Susan, who was helping clear +the supper-table, had joined us, Gregory Wilkinson said to me, with +oven, more emphasis than usual, that Susan was the finest woman he had +ever known; and he added that he was very sorry that when he was my ago +he had not met and married just such another. + +He and I talked a good deal at odd times about the money that our +great-great-great-uncle the pirate had buried, and that through all +these years had stayed buried so persistently. He did not take much +interest in the matter personally, but for my sake, and still more for +Susan's sake, he was beginning to be quite anxious that the money should +be found. He even suggested that we should take Old Jacob over to the +bay-side and let him try again to find the _Martha Ann's_ anchorage; but +a little talk convinced us that this would be useless. The old man had +been given every opportunity, during the two days that we had cruised +about with him, to refresh his memory; and we both had been the pained +witnesses of the curious psychological fact that the more he refreshed +it, the more utterly unmanageable it had become. The prospect, we +agreed, was a disheartening one, for it was quite evident that for our +purposes Old Jacob was, as it were, but an elderly, broken reed. + +About this time I noticed that Gregory Wilkinson was unusually silent, +and seemed to be thinking a great deal about something. At first we +were afraid that he was not quite well, and Susan offered him both her +prepared mustard plasters and her headache powders. But he said that he +was all right, though he was very much obliged to her. Still, he kept +on thinking, and he was so silent and preoccupied that Susan and I +were very uncomfortable. To have him around that way, and to be always +wondering what he could possibly be thinking about, Susan said, made her +feel as though she were trying to eavesdrop when nobody was talking. + +One afternoon while we were sitting on the veranda--Susan and I trying +to keep up some sort of a conversation, and Gregory Wilkinson thinking +away as hard as ever he could think--a thin man in a buggy drove down +the road and stopped at our hitch-ing-post. When he had hitched his +horse he took out from the after-part of the buggy a largo tin vessel +standing on light iron legs, and came up to the house with it. He made +us all a sort of comprehensive bow, but stopped in front of Susan, set +the tin vessel upon its legs, and said: + +"Madam, you behold before you the most economical device and the +greatest labor-saving invention of this extraordinarily devicious and +richly inventive age. This article, madam"--and he placed his hand +upon the tin vessel affectionately--"is Stowe's patent combination +interchangeable churn and wash-boiler." + +Susan did not say anything; she simply shuddered. + +"As at present arranged, madam," the man went on, "it is a churn. +Standing thus upon these light yet firm legs" (the thing wobbled +outrageously), "with this serviceable handle projecting from the top, +and communicating with an exceptionally effective churning apparatus +within, it is beyond all doubt the very best churn, as well as the +cheapest, now offered on the American market. But observe, madam, that +as a wash-boiler it is not less excellent. By the simple process of +removing the handle, taking out the dasher, and unshipping the legs--the +work, as you perceive, of but a moment--the process of transformation +is complete. As to the trifling orifice that the removal of the handle +leaves in the lid, it becomes, when the wash-boiler side of this +Protean vessel is uppermost, a positive benefit. It is an effective +safety-valve. Without it, I am not prepared to say that the boiler would +not burst, scattering around it the scalded, mangled remains of your +washer-woman and utterly ruining your week's wash. + +"And mark, madam, mark most of all, the economy of this invention. I +need not say to you, a housekeeper of knowledge and experience, +that churning-day and wash-day stand separate and distinct upon your +household calendar. Under no circumstances is it conceivable that the +churn and the wash-boiler shall be required for use upon the same day. +Clearly the use of the one presupposes and compels the neglect of the +other. Then why cumber your house with these two articles, equally large +and equally unwieldly, when, by means of the beautiful invention that +I have the honor of presenting to your notice, the two in one can be +united, and money and house-room alike can be saved? I trust, madam, I +believe, that I have said enough to convince you that my article is all +that fancy can paint or bright hope inspire; that in every household +made glad by its presence it will be regarded always and forever as a +heaven-given boon!" Suddenly dropping his rhetorical tone and coming +down to the tone of business, the man went on: "You'll buy one, won't +you? The price--" + +The change of tone seemed to arouse Susan from the spellbound condition +in which she had remained during this extraordinary harangue. + +"O-o-o-oh!" she said, shudderingly, "do take the horrid, horrid thing +right away!" Then she fled into the house. + +I was very angry at the man for disturbing Susan in this way, and I told +him so pretty plainly; and I also told him to get out. At this juncture, +to my astonishment, Gregory Wilkinson interposed by asking what the +thing was worth; and when the man said five dollars, he said that he +would buy it. The man had manifested a disposition to be ugly while +I was giving him his talking to, but when he found that he had made a +sale, after all, he grew civil again. As he went off he expressed the +hope that the lady would be all right presently, and the conviction +that she would find the combination churn and wash-boiler a household +blessing that probably would add ten years to her life. + +"What on earth did you buy that for?" I asked, when the man had gone. + +"Oh, I don't know. It seems to be a pretty good wash-boiler, anyway. +I heard your wife say the other day that she wanted a wash-boiler. She +needn't use it as a churn if she don't want to, you know." + +"But my wife never will tolerate that disgusting thing, with its horrid +suggestiveness of worse than Irish uncleanliness, about the house," I +went on, rather hotly. "I really must beg of you to send it away." + +"All right," he answered. "I'll _take_ it away. I'm going to New York +to-morrow, and I'll take it along." + +"And what ever will you do with it in New York?" I asked. + +"Well, I can't say positively yet, but I guess I'll send it out to the +asylum. They'd be glad to get it there, I don't doubt--not as a churn, +you know, but for wash-boiling." + +Then he went on to tell me that one of the things that he especially +wanted done at the asylum with his legacy was the construction of a +steam-laundry, with a thing in the middle that went round and round, and +dried the clothes by centrifugal pressure. He explained that the asylum +was only just starting as an asylum, and was provided not only with +very few destitute red Indian children, but also with very few of the +appliances which an institution of that sort requires, and that was +the reason why he had selected it, in preference to many other very +deserving charities, to leave his money to. + +I must say that I was glad to hear him talking in this strain, for his +sudden announcement of his intended departure for New York, just after +I had spoken so warmly to him, made me fear that I had offended him. But +it was clear that I hadn't, and that his going off in this unexpected +fashion did not mean anything. He always did have a fancy for doing +things suddenly. + +Susan was worried about it, in just the same way, when I told her; but +she ended by agreeing with me that he was not in the least offended at +anything. Indeed, that evening we both were very much pleased to notice +what good spirits he was in. His preoccupied manner was entirely gone, +and, for him, he was positively lively. Evidently, whatever the thing +was that he had been thinking about so hard, he had settled it in a way +that satisfied him. + +Just as we were going to bed he told me, in what struck me at the time +as rather an odd tone, that he was under the impression that he had +somewhere a chest full of old family papers, and that possibly among +these papers there might be something that would tell me how to find the +fortune that Susan and I certainly deserved to have. As he said this +he laughed in a queer sort of way, and then he looked at Susan very +affectionately, and then he took each of us by the hand. + +"Oh!" said Susan, rapturously (when Susan is excited she always begins +what she has to say with an "Oh!" I like it). "To think of finding a +piece of old yellow parchment with a quite undecipherable cryptogram +written on it in invisible ink telling us just where we ought to dig! +How perfectly lovely! Why _didn't_ you think of it sooner?" + +"Because I have been neither more nor less than a blind old fool. +And--and I have to thank you, my dear," he continued, still speaking in +the queer tone, "for having effectually opened my eyes." As he made this +self-derogatory and quite incomprehensible statement he turned to Susan, +kissed her in a great hurry, shook our hands warmly, said goodnight, and +trotted off up-stairs to his room. His conduct was very extraordinary. +But then, as I have already mentioned, Gregory Wilkinson had a way of +always doing just the things which nobody expected him to do. + +He had settled back into his ordinary manner by morning; at least he was +not much queerer than usual, and bade us good-bye cheerily at the Lewes +railway station. I had hired a light wagon and had driven him over in +time for the early train, bringing Susan along, so that she might see +the last of him. What with all three of us, his trunk and valise, and +the churn-wash-boiler, we had a wagon-load. + +Susan was horrified at the thought of his giving the churn-wash-boiler +to the asylum. "Even if they only are allowed to use it as a +wash-boiler," she argued, earnestly, "think what dreadful ideas of +untidiness it will put into those destitute red Indian children's +heads!--ideas," she went on, "which will only tend to make them disgrace +instead of doing credit to the position of easy affluence to which your +legacy will lift them when they return to their barbaric wilds. If +you _must_ give it to them, at least conceal from them--I beg of you, +conceal from them--the fatal fact that it ever was meant to be a churn +too." + +Gregory Wilkinson promised Susan that he would conceal this fact from +the destitute red Indian children; and then the train started, and he +and the churn-wash-boiler were whisked away. We really were very sorry +to part with him. + + + + +V. + +Two or three days later I happened to meet Old Jacob as I was coming +away from the post-office in Lewes, and I was both pained and surprised +to perceive that the old man was partially intoxicated. When he caught +sight of me he came at me with such a lurch that had I not caught him +by the arm he certainly would have fallen to the ground. At first he +resented this friendly act on my part, but in a moment he forgot his +anger and insisted upon shaking hands with me with most energetic +warmth. Then he swayed his lips up to my ear, and asked in a hoarse +whisper if that old cousin chap of mine had got home safely the night +before; and wanted to know, with a most mysterious wink, if things was +all right _now_. + +I was grieved at finding Old Jacob in this unseemly condition, and I +also was ruffled by his very rude reference to my cousin. I endeavored +to disengage my hand from his, and replied with some dignity that Mr. +Wilkinson at present was in New York, whither he had returned several +days previously. But Old Jacob declined to relinquish my hand, and, +with more mysterious winks, declared in a muzzy voice that I might trust +_him_, and that I needn't say that my cousin was in New York, when he +and him had been a-ridin' around together to the bay and back ag'in only +the day before. And then he went off into a rambling account of this +expedition, which in its main features resembled the expedition that +we all three had taken together, but which displayed certain curious +details as it advanced that I could not at all account for. By all odds +the most curious of these details was that they had taken along with +them a large tin vessel, Old Jacob's description of which tallied +strangely closely with that of the churn-wash-boiler, and that they had +left it behind them when they returned. But as he mixed this up with +a lot of stuff about having shown my cousin the course of an old creek +that a storm had filled with sand fifty years and more before, I could +not make head nor tail of it. + +Yet somehow there really did seem to be more than mere drunken fancy in +what he was telling me; for in spite of his muzzy way of telling it, his +story had about it a curious air of truth; and yet it all was so utterly +preposterous that belief in it was quite out of the question. To +make matters worse, when I begged the old man to try to remember very +carefully whether or not he really had made a second trip to the bay, +or only was telling me about the trip that the three of us had made +together, he suddenly got very angry, and said that he supposed I +thought he was drunk, and if anybody was drunk I was, and he'd fight me +for five cents any time. And then he began to shake his old fists at +me, and to go on in such a boisterous way that, in order to avoid a very +unpleasant scene upon the public streets, I had to leave him and come +home. + +When I told Susan the queer story that Old Jacob bad told me she was +as much perplexed and disturbed by it as I was. To think of Gregory +Wilkinson driving around the lower part of the State of Delaware in this +secret sort of way, in company with Old Jacob and the churn-wash-boiler, +as she very truly said, was like a horrible dream; and she asked me to +pinch her to make sure that it wasn't. + +"But even pinching me don't prove anything," she said, when I had +performed that office for her. "For--don't you see?--I might dream that +I was dreaming, and asked you to pinch me, and that you did it; and I +suppose," she went on, meditatively, "that I might even dream that I +woke up when you pinched me, and yet that I might be sound asleep all +the while. It really is dreadfully confusing, when you come to think +of it, this way in which you can have dreams inside of each other, like +little Chinese boxes, and never truly know whether you're asleep or +awake. I don't like it at all." + +Without meaning to, Susan frequently talks quite in the manner of a +German metaphysician. + +The next day we received a letter from Gregory Wilkinson that we hoped, +as we opened it, would clear up the mystery. But before we had finished +it we were in such a state of excitement that we quite forgot that there +was any mystery to clear up. My cousin wrote from his home in New York, +and made no allusion whatever to a second visit to Lewes, still less to +a second expedition with Old Jacob to Rehoboth Bay. After speaking very +nicely of the pleasant time that he had passed with us, he continued: + +"I enclose a memorandum that seems to have a bearing upon the +whereabouts of the hidden family fortune. I am sorry, for Susan's sake, +that it is neither invisible nor undecipherable; but I think that for +practical purposes visible ink and readable English are more useful. I +advise you to attend to the matter at once. It may rain." + +The enclosure was a scrap of paper, so brown with age that it looked +as though it had been dipped in coffee, on which was written, in +astonishingly black ink, this brief but clear direction: + +_Sheer uppe ye planke midwai atween ye oake and ye hiccorie saplyngs 7 +fathom Est of Pequinky crik on ye baye. Ytte is all there_. + +There was no date, no signature, to this paper, but neither +Susan nor I doubted for a moment that it was the clew to my +great-great-great-uncle's missing fortune. With a heart almost too full +for utterance, Susan went straight across the room to the big dictionary +(Gregory Wilkinson had given it to us at Christmas, with a handy iron +stand to keep in on), and in a trembling voice the dear child told me in +one single breath that a fathom was a measure of length containing six +feet or two yards, generally used in ascertaining the depth of the sea. +Then, without waiting to close the dictionary, she throw herself into my +arms and asked me to kiss her hard! + +Susan wanted to start right off that afternoon--she was determined to +go with me this time, and I had not the heart to refuse her; but I +represented to her that night would be upon us before we could get +across to the bay, and that we had better wait till morning. But I at +once went over and hired the light wagon for the next day, and then we +got together the things which we deemed necessary for the expedition. +The tape-measure, of course, was a most essential part of the outfit. +Susan declared that she would take exclusive charge of that herself; +it made her feel that she was of importance, she said. During all the +evening she was quite quivering with excitement--and so was I, for that +matter--and I don't believe that we slept forty winks apiece all night +long. + +We were up bright and early, and got off before seven o'clock--after +Susan had given the colored girl a great many directions as to what she +should and should not do while we were gone. This was the first time +that we ever had left the colored girl alone in the house for a whole +day, and Susan could not help feeling rather anxious about her. It would +be dreadful, she said, to come home at night and find her bobbing up and +down dead at the bottom of the well. + +As we drew near the bay I asked several people whom we happened to meet +along the road if they knew where Pequinky Creek was, and I was rather +surprised to find that they all said they didn't. At last, however, +we were so fortunate as to meet with quite an old man who was able +to direct us. He seemed to be a good deal astonished when I put the +question to him, but he answered, readily: + +"Yes, yes, o' course I knows where 'tis--'tain't nowhere. Why, young +man, there hain't ben any Pequinky Crik fur th' better part o' sixty +year--not sence thet gret May storm druv th' bay shore right up on eend +an' dammed th' crik short off, an' turned all th' medders thereabouts +inter a gret nasty ma'sh, an' med a new outlet five mile an' more away +t' th' west'ard. Not a sign o' Pequinky Crik will you find at this +day--an' w'at I should like ter know is w'ere on yeth a young feller +like you ever s' much as heerd tell about it." + +This was something that I had not counted on, and I could see that Susan +was feeling very low in her mind. But by questioning the old man closely +I gradually got a pretty clear notion of where the mouth of the creek +used to be; and I concluded that, unless the oak and hickory had been +cut down or washed away, I stood a pretty good chance of finding the +spot that I was in search of. Susan did not take this hopeful view of +the situation. She was very melancholy. + +Following the old man's directions, I drove down to the point on the +road that was nearest to where the Pequinky in former times had emptied +into the bay; then I hitched the horse to a tree, and with Susan and the +tape-measure began my explorations, They lasted scarcely five minutes. +With no trouble at all I found the oak and the hickory--grown to be +great trees, as I had expected--and with the tape-measure we fixed the +point midway between them in no time. Then I went back to the wagon for +the spade and the other things, Susan going along and dancing around and +around me in sheer delight. It is a fortunate trait of Susan's character +that while her spirits sometimes do fall a very long distance in a +very short time, they rise to proportionate heights with proportionate +rapidity. + +The point that we had fixed between the trees was covered thickly with +leaves, and when I had cleared these away and had begun to dig, I was +surprised to find that the soil came up freely, and was not matted +together with roots as wood soil ought to be. I should have paid more +attention to this curious fact, no doubt, had I not been so profoundly +stirred by the excitement incident to the strange work in which I was +engaged. As for Susan, the dear creature said that she had creeps all +over her, for she knew that the old pirate's ghost must be hovering +near, and she begged me to notify her when I came to the skeleton, so +that she might look away. I told her that I did not expect to find a +skeleton, but she replied that this only showed how ignorant _I_ was of +pirate ceremonial; that it was the rule with all pirates when burying +treasure to sacrifice a human life, and to bury the dead body over the +hidden gold. She admitted, however--upon my drawing her attention to the +fact that the treasure which we were in the act of digging up had been +placed here by my relative only for temporary security--that in this +particular instance the human sacrifice part of the pirate programme +might have been omitted. + +Just as we had reached this conclusion--which disappointed Susan a +little, I think--my spade struck with a heavy thud against a piece of +wood. Clearing the earth away, I disclosed some fragments of rotten +plank, and beneath these I saw something that glittered! Susan, standing +beside me on the edge of the hole, saw the glitter too. She did not say +one word; she simply put both her arms around my neck and kissed me. + +I rapidly removed the loose earth, and then with the pickaxe I heaved +the plank up bodily. But what we saw when the plank came away was not +a chest full of doubloons, pieces-of-eight, moidores, and other such +ancient coins, mingled with golden ornaments thickly studded with +precious stones; no, we saw the very bright lid of a tin box, a circular +box, rather more than two feet in diameter. There was a small round +hole in the centre of the lid, into which a little roll of newspaper +was stuffed--presumably to keep the sand out--and beside this hole I +noticed, soldered fast to the lid, a small brass plate on which my eye +caught the word "Patented." It was strange enough to find the tin box in +such perfect preservation while the stout oak plank above it had rotted +into fragments; but the wisp of newspaper, and the brass plate with its +utterly out-of-place inscription, were absolutely bewildering. My head +seemed to be going around on my shoulders, while something inside of it +was buzzing dreadfully. Suddenly Susan exclaimed, in a tone of disgust +and consternation: "It's--it's that perfectly horrid churn-wash-boiler!" + +As she spoke these doomful words I recalled Old Jacob's drunken story, +which I now perceived must have been true, and the dreadful thought +flashed into my mind that Gregory Wilkinson must have gone crazy, and +that this dreary practical joke was the first result of his madness. +Susan meanwhile had sunk down by the side of the hole and was weeping +silently. + +As a vent to my outraged feelings I gave the wretched tin vessel a +tremendous poke with the spade, that caved in one side of it and knocked +the lid off. I then perceived that within it was an oblong package +carefully tied up in oiled silk, and on bending down to examine the +package more closely I perceived that it was directed to Susan. With a +dogged resolve to follow out Gregory Wilkinson's hideous pleasantry +to the bitter end, I lifted the package out of the box--it was pretty +heavy--and began to open it. Inside the first roll of the cover was a +letter that also was directed to Susan. She had got up by this time, and +read it over my shoulder. + + "My dear Susan,--I have decided not to wait until I die to + do what little good I can do in the world. You will be glad, + I am sure, to learn that I have made arrangements for the + immediate erection of the steam-laundry at the asylum, as + well as for the material improvement in several other ways + of that excellent institution. + + "At the same time I desire that you and your husband shall + have the benefit immediately of the larger portion of the + legacy that I always have intended should be yours at my + death. It is here (in govt. 4's), and I hope with all my + heart that your trip to Europe will be a pleasant one. I am + very affectionately yours, + + "Gregory Wilkinson." + +"And to think," said Susan--as we drove home through the twilight, +bearing our sheaves with us and feeling very happy over them--"and to +think that it should turn out to be your cousin Gregory Wilkinson +who was the family pirate and had a hoard, and not your +great-great-great-uncle, after all!" + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Pirate Hoard, by Thomas A. 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