Money Island | Page 8

ground and the
holes which had been dug; and then began to make inquiries as
innocently as we could as to their object. Our plans of the night before
began to work successfully.
By sheer force of persistence, we won our way into their confidence,
and worked with them until late in the afternoon. For they were indeed
on a determined search for Captain Kidd's buried treasure.
We were in constant expectation of discovering the chests of gold--two
iron chests, which Mr. Landstone, the elder gentleman, assured us he
felt positive were there. But the discovery was not made, and they said
this had been the fourth day of labor on the Island.
The conclusion was reached that, either the surrounding water had
encroached upon that portion of the Island where the treasure had been
buried, and had thus imposed an almost impossible barrier to its being
unearthed; or that the chests had become imbedded beneath the massive
roots of two dwarfed old oaks which stood gnarled and storm-worn in
the centre of the island. To the task of removing these trees the men felt
entirely unequal after their days of work; and, therefore, it was decided

to wait a day or two, and approach the task of doing so, if at all, with
renewed spirit.
Upon invitation, we boys accompanied the men to their camp and had
supper with them. We were entertained by stories of adventure and
travel, of sea voyage, of Indian warfare; and, finally, after several
requests of Mr. Landstone, with the story of Money Island. He said he
would tell it upon condition that its secrecy would be kept inviolate, at
least for many years. So, in the weird light of a large pine-wood fire
among the trees, we had the story of Money Island, told in the living
voice of a capital story-teller, in almost the same words as are used in
the MS he gave me that night, and which has now been publicly
printed.
When Mr. Landstone finished, we boys sat in breathless amazement,
overcome by the glamour of romance which the story had thrown
around the mysterious little island.
The old sailor forgot his pipe, which turned over and dropped its
contents to the ground. "Aye, sir," he exclaimed, "we will surely uproot
those trees in the morning!" And that became the decision of us all.
I remember that, after a long pause, I asked, to reassure myself, "Mr.
Landstone, do you really believe that story?" He laughed and said,
"Well, you see I am on an undertaking I have had in mind for nearly
fifty years. Yes, I believe those chests are there."
That was enough. I did not sleep an hour that night; and the next
morning we were early at the task of searching for the treasure. And a
stupendous undertaking it proved to be. All day we labored at one tree.
The roots were massive and wide-spread, and the work of cutting and
removing them required the utmost exertion. Finally, just before sunset,
we completed the task, and began to dig for the treasure in the earth
below.
Already water had begun to percolate into the hole, and ere we had
gone much deeper, it flooded it so that we found it impossible to
continue the excavation. Then we resorted to our sounding rod again

for a last ray of hope, and almost immediately it struck something hard!
Our spirits rose within us.
I tore off my clothes, and jumped into the water. After working for
some time, with the aid of a shovel, I brought to the surface a piece of
rusty sheet iron. Nothing more could be found. We gathered round the
worn sheet of metal, and held a solemn consultation.
The conclusion was reached that the piece of iron which we found was
in reality a part of one of Captain Kidd's chests, which had become
rust-eaten and crumbled, and which had been torn asunder by the
growing roots of the tree, and parts of it carried in various directions by
them as they had spread, scattering the contents through the ground.
We became animated with a new purpose; and the old sailor seized a
shovel and began vigorously to throw more earth from the excavation;
but darkness was falling, and we urged him to wait until the next
morning.
"What about the sand already thrown out?" some one exclaimed at this
juncture. The suggestion had hardly been offered before we all bent
forward, and thrust our hands into the pile of wet, black sand lying
about us.
I at once felt something round and suggestive. "Look at this!" I cried. It
was a blackened gold coin! In the darkness we hurriedly sifted the sand
with our fingers; and each one soon found several pieces of