Newspapers / Forest City Courier (Forest … / Oct. 9, 1919, edition 1 / Page 7
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PIECES OF EIGHT BEING THE AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF A TREASURE DISCOVERED IN THE BAHAMA ISLANDS IN THE YEAR 1903. NOW FIRST GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC By RICHARD LE GALLIENNE Copyright by Donbleday, Page A Company -READING THE FUTURE." Synopsis—The man who tells this story—call him the hero, for short— Zs visiting his friend, John Saun ders, British official in Nassau, Bahama Islands. Charles Webster, a local merchant, completes the trio of friends. Conversation turn ing upon buried treasure, Saunders produces a written document pur porting to be the death-bed state ment of Henry P. Tobias, a suc cessful pirate, made by him in 1859. It gives two spots where two mil lions and a .half of treasure were buried by him and his companions. The conversation of the three friends is overheard by a pock marked stranger. The document disappears. Saunders, however, has a copy. The hero, determined to seek the buried treasure, charters the auxiliary schooner Maggie Dar- The pock-marked man Is •ihUvsa on as a passenger for Span ish Wells. Negro Tom catches and •rjnres a "sucking fish" as a mascot ■ibar the hero; it has the virtue of off the ghost of the pirate who always guards pirate treasure. *On - the voyage somebody empties :tiie gasoline tank and the hero starts things. He and the passen ger clash. He lands the passenger, who leaves a manifesto bearing the signature, "Henry P. Tobias, Jr" With a new crew, the Maggie Dar ling sails and is passed by another schooner, the Susan B. The hero lands on Dead Men's Shoes. The "sucking fish" proves a mascot in deed and carries the hero through a fight, which is followed by sev eral funerals. He searches for buried treasure and Old Tom falls into a pirates' cave. CHAPTER Vlll—Continued. **Mlnd yourself, sar," he called cheer ily, and indeed it was a problem to get efcown to him without precipitating the loose earth and rock that were ready so make a landslide down the hole, and perhaps bury him forever. But, looking about, I found another statural tunnel In the side of the hill. Into this I was able to worm myself, and in the dim light found the old man and put my flask to his lips. "Anything broken, do you think?" Tom didn't think so. He had evi dently been stunned by his fall, and aoa/sther pull at my flask set him on /Ms feet. But as I helped him up, and, a&ziking a light, we began to look «zonnd the hole he had tumbled into, She gave a piercing shriek and fell on Stis knees, jabbering with fear. •The ghosts 1 the ghosts 1" he aerearned. And the sight that met our eyes was certainly one to try the nerves. Two figures sat at a table —one with his Attt tilted slightly and one leaning side ways in his chair in a careless sort of attitude. They seeemed to be playing eards, and they were strangely white — for they were skeletons. I stood hushed, while Tom's teeth rattled at my side. The fantastic awe ef the thing was beyond telling. And tben, not without a qualm or two, which I would be a liar to deny, I went asd stood nearer to them. Nearly all t Waited a Minute to Replace the Hat on the Rakish One's Head. t&eir clothes had fallen away, hanging but in shreds h*re and there. That flte hat had so jauntily kept its place was one of those grim touches Death, tftat terrible humorist, loves to add to Bis Jests. The cards which had ap jpswaaitly just been dealt, had suffered aearaely from decay—only a little dirt sifted down upon them, as it had inaa- «&e ruin glasses that stood, too, ■jmt eacb man's side. And as I looked .at tiie skeleton jauntily facing me, I iiwtwfS ti&at a bullet hole had been - clean as if by a drill in his f*w»&«eyd of bone—while, turning to .♦scajmne more closely his silent part ww, I noticed a rusty sailor's knife SwsMging from the ribs where the lungs fot&it been. Then I looked on the floor ftmad the key to the whole story. For there, within a few yards, stood j a heavy sailor's chest, strongly bound around with iron. Its lid was thrown back and a few coins lay scattered at the bottom, while a few lay about on the floor. I picked them up. They were pieces of eight! Meanwhile Tom had stopped jabber ing and had come nearer, looking on in awed silence. I showed him the pieces' of eight. "I guess these are all we'll see of one John P. Tobias' treasure, Tom," I said. And it looks as if these poor fellows saw as little of it as ourselves. Can't you imagine them with it there at their feet —perhaps playing to di vide it on a gamble, and meanwhile the other fellows stealing in through some of these rabbit runs —one with a knife, the other with a gun—and then: off with the loot and up with the sails. Poor devils! It strikes me as a very pretty tragedy—doesn't it you?" Suddenly—perhaps with the vibra tion of our voices—the hat toppled off the head of the fellow facing us in the most weird and comical fashion —and that was too much for Tom, and he screamed and made for the exit hole. But I waited a minute to replace the hat on the rakish one's head. As I was likely often to think of him In the future I preferred to remember him at the moment of our first sttange acquaintance. Book 11.. CHAPTER I. Once More in John Saunders' Snug gery. Need I say that it was a great occa sion when I was once more back safe in John Saunders' snuggery, telling my story to my two friends, John and Charlie Webster, all just as If I had never stirred from my easy chair, in stead of having spent an exciting month or so among sharks, dead men, blood-lapping ghosts, card-playing skeletons and such like? My friends listened to my yarn in characteristic fashion, John Saunders' eyes like mice peeping out of a cup board, and Charlie Webster's huge bulk poised almost threatening, as it were, with the keenness of his atten tion. His deep-set kind brown eyes glowed like a boy's as I went on, but by their dangerous kindling at certain points of the story, those dealing with our pockmarked friend, Henry P. To bias, Jr., I soon realized where, for him, the chief interest of the story lay. "The rebel!" he roared out once or twice, using an adjective pe culiarly English. For him my story had but one moral —the treason of Henry P. Tobias, Jr. The treasure might as well have had no existence, so far as he was con- C3rned, and the grim climax in the cave drew nothing from him but a pre occupied nod. And John Saunders was little more satisfactory. Both of them allowed me to end in silence. They both seemed to be thinking deeply. "I must say you two are a great au dience," I said presently, perhaps rather childishly nettled. "It's a very serious matter," said John Saunders, and I realized that it was not my crony but the secretary to the treasury of his Britannic majes ty's government at Nassau that was As he spoke he looked across at Charlie Webster, almost as if for getting me. "Something should be done about it, eh, Charlie?" he con tinued. " traitor!" roared Charlie, once more employing that British adjective. And then he turned to me: "Look here, old pal, I'll make a bar gain with you, If you like. I suppose you're keen for that other treasure now, eh?" "I am," said I, rather stiffly. "Well, then, I'll go after it with you—on one condition. You can keep the treasure, if you'll give me Tobias. It would do my heart good to get him, as you had the chance of doing that afternoon. Whatever were you doing to miss him?" "I proposed to myself the satisfac tion of making good that mistake," I said, "on our next meeting. I feel I owe it to the poor old captain." "Never mind; hand the captain's rights over to me —and I'll help you all I know with your treasure. Be sides, Tobias is a job for an English man—eh, John? It's a matter of 'king and country' with me. With you it would be mere private vengeance. With me it will be an execution; with you it would be a murder. Isn't that so, John?" "Exactly," John nodded. "Since you were away," Charlie be gan again, "I've bought the prettiest yawl you ever set eyes on —the Fla mingo—forty-five over all, and this time the very fastest boat in the har bor. Yes! she's faster even than the Susan B. Now I've a holiday due me in about a fortnight. Say the word, and the Flamingo's yours for a couple of months, and her captain too. I 1 make only that one condition." "All right, Charlie," I agreed; "he's . 1 yours." THE COUBIER, FOREST CITY, N. C Whereat Charlie shot out a huge paw like a shoulder of mutton and grabbed my hand with as much fervor as though I had saved his life or done him some other unimaginable kind ness. And as he did so his broad, sweet smile came back again. He was thinking of Tobias. While Charlie Webster was arrang ing his affairs so that he might be able to take his holiday with a free mind I busied myself with provision ing the Flamingo, and in casually chat ting with one and another along the water front, in the hope of gathering some hint that might guide us on our coming expedition. *1 thought it pos sible, too, that chance might thus bring me some information as to the recent movements of Tobias. In this way I made the acquaintance of several old salts, both white and black, one or two of whom time and their neighbors had invested with a legendary savor of the old "wrecking days," which, if rumor speaks true, are not "entirely vanished from the remoter corners of the islands. But either their romantic halos were en tirely due to imaginative gossip, or they themselves were too shrewd to be drawn, for I got nothing out of them to my purpose. One afternoon in the course of these rather fruitless if interesting investi gations among the picturesque ship yards of Bay street I had wandered farther along that historic water front than is customary with sightseeing pe destrians, and had come to where the road begins to be left alone with the sea, except for a few country houses here and there among the surrounding scrub —when my eye was caught by a little store that seemed to have strayed away from the others —a small timber erection painted in blue and white with a sort of sea-wildness and loneliness about it, and with large, naive lettering across its lintel an nouncing itself as an "Emporium" (I think that was the word) "of Marine Curiosities." I pushed open the door. There was no one there. The little store was evidently left to take care of Itself. Inside it was like an old curiosity shop of the sea, every available inch of space, rough tables and walls, littered and hung with the queer and lovely bric-a-brac of the sea. Presently a tiny girl came in, as it seemed, from nowhere and said she would fetch her father. In a moment or two he came, a tall, weathered Englishman of the sailor type, brown and lean, with lonely blue eyes. "You don't seem afraid of thieves," I remarked. "It ain't a jewelry store," he said, with the curious soft sing-song intona tion of the Nassau "conch." "That's just what I was thinking it was," I said. "I know what you mean," he replied, his lonely face lighting up as faces do at unexpected understanding in a stranger. "Of course there are some that feel that way, but they're few and far between." "Not enough to make a fortune out of?" "Oh! I do pretty well," he said; "I mustn't complain. Money's not every thing, you see, in a business like this. There's going after the things, you know. One's got to count that in too." I looked at him in some surprise. I had met something even rarer than the things he traded in. I had met a merchant of dreams, to whom the mere handling of his merchandise seemed sufficient profit: "There's going after the things, you know. One's got to count that in too." Naturally we were neck-deep in talk in a moment. I wanted to hear all he cared to tell me about "going after the things"—such "things!"—and he was nothing loth, as he took up one strange or beautiful object after an other, his face aglow, and he quite evidently without a thought of doing business, and told me all about them— how and where he got them, and so forth. "But," he said presently, encouraged by my unfeigned interest, "I should like to show you a few rarer things I have in the house, and which I wouldn't sell, or even show to every one. If you'd honor me by taking a cup of tea we might look them over." So w r e left the little store, with its door unlocked as I had found it, and a few steps brought us to a little house I had not before noticed, with a neat garden in front of it, all the garden beds symmetrically bordered with conch shells. Shells were evidently the simple-hearted fellow's mania, his revelation of the beauty of the world. Here in a neat parlor, also much dec orated with shells, tea was served to us by the little girl I had first seen and an elder sister, who, -I gathered, made all the lonely dreamer's family. Then, shyly pressing on me a cigar, he turned to show me the promised treas ures. He also told me more of his manner of finding them, and of the long trips which he had .to take in seeking them, to out-of-the-way cays and in dangerous waters. > He was showing me the last and rarest of his specimens. He had kept, he said, the best to the last To me as a layman, it was not nearly so at tractive as other things he had shown me —little more to my eye than a rath er commonplace though pretty shell; but he explained that it was found, or had so far been found, only in one spot in the islands, a lovely, seldom visited cay several miles to the north east of Andros island. "Whnt is It called?" I asked, for It was part of our plan for Charlie to do a little duck shooting on Andros, be fore we tackled the business of Tobias and the treasure. "It's called Cay nowadays," he answered, "but it used to be called Short Shrift island." "Short Shrift island!" I cried in spite of myself, immediately annoyed at my lack of presence of mind. "Certainly," he rejoined, looking a little surprised but evidently without suspicion. He was too simple and too taken up with his shell. "It is such an odd name," I said, trying to recover myself. "Yes! those old pirate chaps cer* tainly did think up some of the rum miest names." "One of the pirate haunts, was it?" I queried with assumed indifference. "Supposed to be. But one hears that of every other cay in the Baha mas. I take no stock in such yarns. My shells are all the treasure I expect to find." "What did you call that »hell?" I asked. He told me the name, but I forgot it immediately. Of course I had asiced it only for the sake of learning more precisely about Short Shrift Island. He told me innocently enough just where it lay. "Are you going after it?" he laughed. "Oh! well," I replied, "I am going on a duck-shooting trip to Andros be- "You Don't Seem Afraid of Thieves." fore long, and I thought I might drop around to your cay and pick a few of them up for you." "It would be mighty kind of you, but they're not easy to find. I'll tell you exactly—*v He went off, dear fellow, into the minutest description of the habits of , while all the time I was eager to rush off to Charlie Web ster and John Saunders and shout into their ears—as later I did at the first possible moment that evening: "I've found our missing cay! Short Shrift island is ." (I mentioned the name of a cay, which, as in the case of "Dead Man's Shoes," I am un able to divulge.) "Maybe!" said Charlie, "maybe! We can try it. But," he added, "did you find out anything about Tobias?" CHAPTER 11. In Which I Am Afforded Glimpses Into Futurity—Possibly Useful. Two or three evenings before we were due to sail, at one of our snug gery conclaves, I put the question whether anyone had ever tried the di vining rod for treasure in the islands. Old John nodded and said he knew the man I wanted, a half-crazy old ne gro back there in Grant's Town—the negro quarter spreading out into the brush behind the ridge on which the town of Nassau proper is built. "He calls himself a 'king,''' he added, "and the natives do, I believe, regard him as the head of a certain tribe. The lads call him 'Old King Coffee' —a memory I suppose of the Ashantee war. Anyone will tell you where he lives. He has a name as a preacher—among the Holy Jumpers!— but he's getting too old to do much preaching nowadays. Go and see him for fun anyway." So next morning I went. I had hardly been prepared for the plunge into "Darkest Africa" which I found myself taking, as, leaving Gov ernment house behind, perched on the crest of its white ridge, 1 walked a few yards inland and entered a region which, for all its green palms, made a similar sudden Impression of pervad ing blackness on the mind which one gets on suddenly entering a coal-min ing district after traveling through fields and meadows. "Oid King Coffee" predicts (j an interesting future for thr hero. (TO BE CONTIK J: eDOYH scours (Conducted by National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.) HOW CAMP TEACHES SCOUTS How far can the summer camp serve the ambitious scout who wishes to advance in his tests? How can the routine work of the camp be made an interesting matter of service to the camp community? On the trail of these and many re lated questions, several hundred camp directors are working. It is clear that the best way to teach camping is to let the boy actually camp. The presence or proximity of an experi enced camper will help him to learn the best way more readily, and with less hazard, but the way itself is that of the apprentice rather than the book student. The habit of self-reliance and of common sense can best be de veloped in a camp where instruction is combined with hours and days that throw the boys on their own re sources. It should be the wish of every boy to become a proficient camper while passing his scout grades and merit badges. The enthusiasm of many boys will lead them to endure lectures and book work to a certain but such enthusiasm feeds upon the chance to do some part of the neces sary work of a community as well as It can be done, whether it be for a patrol, a troop, or a council. MAKING THE RIGHT SIGN. Boy Scouts Have Signs With Their Fingers. Here Is One Undergoing Test. SCOUTS HELP TO FIND JOBS. Another task which Boy Scouts were recently asked by the government to attempt was the distribution of posters relating to the problem of getting jobs for soldiers. The war department provided na tional headquarters with a list of forty or more cities in which the situation was so serious as to require special propaganda effort. In every one of these cities there was a first-class scout council and through the scout executive of these local organizations the work was carried out in each community with dispatch and efficiency. Again Boy Scouts were proud and eager to lend a hand. Evidently there is still plenty of war work to be done, even though the treaty has been signed and peace declared. This is as it should be. Scouting wishes to help Uncle Sam put through some of his numerous big tasks which concern his "boys." SCOUTING AND CIGARETTES. John M. Phillips, member of the na tional scout council and a scout com missioner for Allegheny county, Penn sylvania, has this to say regarding cig arette smoking: "From personal observation I find that we have very little smoking among our Allegheny county scouts, and while we have not prohibited it we impress upon the scout the fact that to be 'physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight,' he can not abuse his body by using tobacco in any form. I have stopped a lot of scouts from smoking cigarettes by telling them that if I wanted to stunt a pup I would feed him tobacco juice." Mr. Phillips is getting splendid re sults from his "stunted pup." WHAT THE SCOUTS DO. The Boy Scouts in South San Fran cisco have planted a large date palm in the civic center in honor of Theo 'dore Roosevelt. Three Boy Scouts who were on a hike from New York to Montreal, passing through the Adirondack Moun tains between Chesterton and Eliza bethtown, N. Y„ came across a side car accident, in which the occupants of the side-car were unconscious. The boys rendered first aid and telephoned to Elizabethtown for medical aid. IMPROVED UIOTORM INTERNATIONAL SfiNMTSdIOOL LESSON (By REV. P. B. FITZ WATER. D. D., Teacher of English Bible In the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.) (Copyright, 1919. Western Newspaper Union) LESSON FOR OCTOBER 12 FISHERS OF MEN. , ■ ____ ' LESSON TEXT-Mark 1:14-20. GOLDEN TtXT—Jesus said unto them, come ye after me. and I will make you to become fishers of men.—Mark 1:17. ADDITIONAL MATERIAL—Matt. 4:l*- 12; Luke 5:1-11; 14:15-24; James 5:19. 20. PRIMARY TOPlC—Helping other* to know Jesus. JUNIOR TOPlC—Peter and John be come wc.kers for Jesus. INTERMEDIATE TOPIC—The work of a disciple. SENIOR AND ADULT TOPIC—Ways of winning men to Christ. I. Jesus Preaching in Galilee (vv. 14, 15). 'The reason why he changed from Judea to Galilee was the growing op position to him. The fate of John the Baptist he acc.*pred as foreshadowing his own death. The rejection of the forerunner meant the rejection of him whose advent he heralded. Prudence moved him to a more remote region, where he would attract less attention and he free from opposition. Besides this it gave less favored people an op portunity to hear the gospel, according to the prophetic word (Isa. 9:1, 2). It foreshadowed the gospel to the Gen tiles. 1. What he preached (v. 14). The gospel of the Kingdom of God, which meant the good news of the near ap proach of the Kingdom of God, when the rule of God as predicted by the prophets would be realized. It should be carefully noted that the gospel of the Kingdom differs from the gospel of the grace of God. 2. How he preached (v. 15). (1) "The time Is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand." This meant that the time had now come for the appear ance of the Messiah and the establish ment of his kingdom. (2) "Repent." This meant that the people should turn around, change their minds and atti tude toward Christ the King and ac cept him as their King. This is a mes sage which needs to be sounded out today. People should be called upon to repent of their sins. (3) "Believe the gospel." Then, as now, men need to believe the gospel of Christ's death for their sins and resurrection for justifica tion (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Bom. 4:25). 11. Jesus Calling Disciples to Becom* Fishers of Men (vv. 10-20). 1. Who were called (vv. 10. 19). Si mon and Andrew, John and James, two pairs of brothers. It is usually best to render the Lord's service In fellowship —in pairs. This is not only necessary for effective testimony, but for needed fellowship on the part of workers and protection of the witnesses. These all had previously been called to Christ for salvation; they had become his dis ciples (John 1:30-42). They are now called to service. This Is always his way. We are first called to be dis ciples, then called to have fellowship with him in service. 2. From what they were called (vv. 10, 20). They were called from posi tions of definite service. God always chooses his servants from the ranks of the employed. The lazy man Is not likely to have a call. 3 To what they were called (v. 17). To be "fishers of men." They no doubt had been successful •fishers. The qualities which made them £ >od fisher men. namely, patience, bravery to face the storm and night, and perseverance which led them to toil all night, though no fish were caught, would make them good fishers of men. It requires pa tience, bravery and perseverance to win souls for Christ. 4. Their call to obedience (vv. 18, 20). To obey meant sacrifice, painful sep aration, to give up all business inter ests and leave their father behind. Ue gardless of the cost, they yielded ! prompt obedience. They gave up busi ness and home, not even inquiring as to where their salaries were to come from. They put their trust in him who called them, believing that he was able to supply all their needs. 5. Their reward (v. 17). These four men have wielded wondrous influence in the world. Their names have be come immortalized. Had they remain ed at their business they would only have been humble fishermen. When Christ calls let us promptly obey, for eventually it will pay. It will yield one hundredfold !n this life, and eter nal life in the world to come. Preaching the Gospel. If the church is to reach the masses of the people it will have to send, as did the prophets and apostles, fit men to tell the glorious gospel of the grace of God. What is more, those who can not do this work will have to support and encourage those who can. The marching orders of the church are: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." "For Thee." With all the salvation of the world depending upon him. he has time and thought for each individual soul. Think of the vastness of his cares! yet the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was given for thee.—Selected. Contagion of Heaven. There ought to be such an atmos phere in every (Jfiristian church that a man going and sirting there should take* the contagion of heaven, and car ry home a fire to kindle the altar whence he came. —H. W. Beecher. 11 I
Forest City Courier (Forest City, N.C.)
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Oct. 9, 1919, edition 1
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