Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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^ Pieces 1 I of Eigh| v Being the Authentic 0. 0 Narrative of a Treasure Q Q Discovered in the Q Q Bahama Islands in the : A > Year 1903?Now First x \ Given to the Public. \ fj i A > RICHARD LEGALLIENNE \ Copyright by Doableday, Page A Company , - i (Continued From Laat Week) CHAPTER II." Under the Influence of the Moon. My days now began to drift rather I aimlessly, us without apparent pur- ! pose I continued to linger on an island that might well seem to have little attraction to a stranger?how little I' could see by the mystification of the good Tom, to whom, for once, of course, I could not confide. Yet I had a vague purpose; or, at least, I had a feeling that. If I waited on something 1 - would develop In the direction of my hopes. The doubloon still suggested that It was the key to a door of fascinating mystery to which chance might at any moment dlrect^ie. And?why not admit lt?-i^$nrt from my burled treasure, to tne discovery of which the doulroon seemed to point, I was possessed with a growing desire for unother glimpse of those haunting eyes. They needed not their association with the mys? terlous gold, they were magnetic >. enough to draw any man, with even the rudiments of Imnglnailon, along the path of the unknown. All the pnths out of the little settlement were pnths in|o lhe unknown, and, day after day, I followed one or another of them out Into the wilderness, tnklng a gun with me, as an ostensible excuse for any spying eye, and bringing back with me occasional bags of the wild pigeons which were plentiful on the Island. , One day I hnd thus wandered unusunlly far a Hold, and at nightfull found myself still several miles from home '* She Had Dived Directly Into the L . Path of the Moon. on a rocky path overhanging the sen. < 1 There was no sign of habitation anywhere. It was a wild and lonely place. uuu ^irnt'nuy over us HayiiKO neauty | stole the glamor of the iuoou rising far over the sea. I sat down on a ledge of the clltls and watched the moonlight grow In Iniemdty as the darkness Of the woods deepened behind me. It was a night ftili of witchcraft; u night on which '.he stars, the moon, and the k sea tag. (her seemed hinting at some I Wonderful thing about t?/ Iftippen. 6 Then, us If tit" fails? night wer* ftinn-i,' ice mi thoughts with a rh.ii* lence. what was this bright wonder i'dd? ..ly present on one of the boulders far down beneath nte??a tall shape of witchcraft- whiteness, stand* full In the moon, like a statue In HH luminous marble of some goddess of SHf antiquity. IB % My eyes and my heart together M lie It whs she; and, as she hung poised aver the edge of the water in the atBfl fltude of one about to dive, a turn of H her head gave me that longed-for flffljNL glimpse of those living eyes filled with moonlight. She stood another m<?K meat, still as the night, in her loveliI ness; and tho next she had dived dl rvH'tly Into the path of the moon. I saw her eyes moon til led agnin, us she V came to the surface, and began to ^ swim?not, as one might have expect vjlr out from the land, hut directly in 1 ^Bgw^ownrd the unseen base of the cIKTh. | B^B Tie' moon-puth did lead to a golden ' jB^E door In the rocks, I said to myself, I and she was about to enter It. It was ^B a secret door known only to herself; ^^^B and then, for the first time that night, ^^B 1 thought of that doubloon, fl B Perhaps If I had not thought of it 11 ?ould not have done whut then t did. : B^H Altera will, doubtless, be those who donsure me. If so, I am afraid ^H^^^Lley must. At all events, It was the ^H^^Kblittht of that doubloon that swayed balance of my hesitation in taking moon-path In the treck of that ^H^^Lht upv.arltion. ^^^^^^ leoked for u way down to tho edge sea. It wus not easy to find, hnt B Br much perilous 'scrambling I at found niysolf on the boulder bad so lately been the ^^B^B[^Kit Hndlance; and, In another moB B l had dived Into the nioon-patli summing toward the naysopened rift? ?vl" nentff the roa3 on which T "had been' trending. I could see the moonlit water vanishing Into a sort of gleaming lane between the vast overhangs lug Vails. Presently *1 felt my feet rest lightly on firm sand, and, still shouldej deep In the water, 1 walked on another yard or two?to be brought to a sudden stop. There she was coming towurd me, breast high in that watery tunnel! J The moon, continuing Its serene aaccn- 1 slon, lit her up with a sudden beam. OL shape of bloom and glofyl | For a moment we both stood looking at each other, as If transfixed. - Then I she gave u frightened cry and put her hands up to her bosom; as she did so a. stream of something bright?like gold pieces?fell from her mouth, und two like streams from her opened hands. Then, as quick as light, she had darted pasf me and dived Into the moon-path beyond. She must huve swam under the water a long way, for when 1 saw her dark head rise again in the KUmmprlnc - w- ?. -?o |/uv*i ?v nan ui (1 distance of many yards. I had nd thought of following her, but stood In a dream among th'e watery gleams and echoes. For me hud come that hour of wonder; for me out of'that tropic sea, Into whose flawless deeps my eyes had so often gone adrdum, hud risen the creature of miracle. Ol shape of moonlit marble I O! holiness of this night of moon and stars und seal _Yes! I was In love. Yet I hope, and think, that the reader will not resent this unexpected Incursion Into the realms of sentiment when he considers that my sudden attack wns not, like most such sudden attacks, un interruption In the robuster course ot events, but, instead, curiously In the direct line of my purpose. Because the eyes of an unknown girl had thus suddenly enthralled me, I was nort, therefore, to lose sight of that purpose. On the contrary, they had suddenly shone out on tha pathway along which I had been blindly groping. But for the accident of being In the dirty little store at so psychological a moment, hearing that strangely familiar voice and cutchlng sight of that mysterious ; doubloon us well as those mysterious eyes, I should have set sail that very night nnd given up John P. Tobias' second treasure In final disgust. As It was, I was now warmly on the track of Home treasure?whether his or not ?with two bright eyes further to point the way. Never surely did a man's love nnd Ids purpose make so practical a combination. ( When I reached my lodging at lust in the early morning following that | night of wonders my eyes and heart were not so dazed with that vision In the cave that I did not vividly rocnll ! one Important detail of the strange picture?those streams of gold that ' hud suddenly p<rurod out of the mouth ' and hands of the lovely nppurltiou. Without doubting the evidence of , my senses, I wns forced to believe j that, by the oddest piece of luck, I had ^ stumbled upon the hiding place of that ; hoard of doubloons, on which my fair * Unknown drew from tlnrwi ?? she would out of a bank. Hut who was she??and whore was lu*r hoino? There had seemed no sign of habitation neur the wild place where I had come upon her, though, of course, a solitary house might easily have escaped iny notice hidden amonK all that foliage, particularly at nightfall. To he sure, I had hut to Inquire of the storekeeper to learn all I wanted; hut I was averse from hetruying my Interest to hifn or to anyone in the settlement?for, after all, it wus niy own affair, und hers. So I determined to pursue my policy of watching and wuitiug, letting a day or two elapse before I again went out wandering with x, gun. I .left the craggy Muff fuclng the er. and plunged Into the woods. 1 hrd no Idea how dark It was going to, hut, conning out of the sun, I wus at once bewildered by the deep and complicated gloom of massed branches overhead, and the denser <rnrknes8 of shrubs and vines ho Intricately Interwoven as almost to make a solid wall about one. Then the atmosphere was so close and airless that a fear of suffocation combined at once with the other feur of being swallowed up In all this savage green life, without hope of finding one's way out again Into the sun. I fought my way In hut a very few yards when both these fours clutched hold of me with u sudden horror, and the perspiration poured from tue; I could no longer distinguish be- # tween the way I had come und any other part of the wood! Indeed, there wns no wny anywhere! I must have battled through the | veritable Inferno of vegetation for at I least an hour?though It seemed a lifetime. Clouds of particularly unpleasant midges tilled my eyes, not to speak of mosquitoes and a peculiar kind of persistent stinging fly was adding to rny miseries, when at lost, begrimed and dripping with sweat, 1 stumbled out, with a cry of thankfulness, on to comparatively fresh air and something like a broad nvenue running north and south through the wood. It wus Indeed densely overgrown, and had evidently not been used for many years. Still, It was comparatively passable, and one could at least see the sky and take long breaths once more. Still there was no sign of a house anywhere. Presently, however, as I stumbled along I noticed something ' looming darkly through the matted forest on my left that suggested walla. Looking closer, I aaw that It waa the ruin of a amall atone cottage, roofleaa, and tudeacrihahly swallowed up In the pitiless scrub. And then, near hy, I descried another such ruin, and still another?all, as It were, sunk in the terrible gloom of the vegetation, us sometimes, at low tide, one can discern the walls of a ruined village at the bottom of the sea. Evidently I had come upon a longabandoned settlement, and presently, 011 some slightly higher ground to the left, I thought I could make out the half-submerged walls of a much more ambitious edifice. Looking closer, I noted, with a thrill of surprise, the beginning of a very nnrrow path, not more than a foot wide, leading up through the scrub In lta- direction. Nurrow as It was, It had clearly been, kept open fry the not-infrequent paeflUwt WUkft cscuiA tack < * mf, I edfced toy way Into It, and, after following it for a hundred yards or so, found myself close to the rootless ruin of a spacious stone house with something of the appearance of an old English tnahor house. Mullloned windows, finely masoned, opened in the shuttered wall, and an elaborate stone staircase, in the interstices of which stout shrubs were growing, gnve, or once hud given, nn entrance through an arched doorway?an entrance now stoutly disputed by the glistening trunk of a gum-eletnl tree and endless matted ropelike roots of gluut vines and creepers that writhed lllje serpents over the whole edlflc^ Forcing my wuy up this staircase, I found myself In a stone hull some sixty feet long, at one end of which yawned a huge fireplace, Its flue mounting up through a finely curved chimney, still standing firmly at the top of the southern gable. How had this almost baronial magnificence come to be in tills far-away corner of u desert island? At first I concluded that here was u relic of the brief colonial prosperity of the Bahamas, when its cotton lords lived like princes, with a slave population for retainers?days when even jthe bootblacks in Nassau played pltchuud-toss with gold pieces; but as 1 luuuer, 11 seemeu to mo thnt tlie style of tint architecture and the age of the building suggested an curlier date. Could It he that this had been the home of one of those early eighteenth century* pirates who took pride In flaunting the luxury and pomp of princes, and who had perhaps made this his headquarters and stronghold for the storage of his loot on the return from his forays on the Spanish Main? This, ns the more spirited conjecture, I naturally preferred, and, In default of exact information, decided to accept. The more I pondered upon this fancy and remarked the extent of the ruins ? Including several subsidiary outhouses?and noted, too, one or two choked stone staircases that seemed to descepd Into the bowels of the earth, the more plausible It seemed. In one or two places where I suspected underground cellars?dungeons for unhappy captives belike, or strong vaults for the storage of the treasure ?I tested the floors by dropping heavy stones, and they seemed unmistakably to reverberate with a hollow rumbling Hound; but I could find no present way r>f getting down into them. As I said, the staircases that promised on entrance into them we.ro choked with debris. Ilut I promised myself to come soipe other day, with pick and sliovol, npd make an attempt at exploring them. Meanwhile, after poking about in as much of the ruins as I could penetrate, [ stepped out through a gap in one jf the walls and found myself again :>n the path by which I had entered. I noticed that it still ran on fnrtl*r inrth. as having a destination beyond. So leaving the haunted ruins behind I pushed on ami bad gone but a slurrt llstniice when the path began to descend slightly from the ridge on which the ruins .mod ; and there, in a broad iquu. ..ollow before me, was the welcome living green < f a flourishing plantation "if coconut palms! It wis ovlfently of considerable extent? a qup.fer iff a mile or so, I Judged?at <1 the minis were very tluck anil planted lose together. To my surprise, too, I ibserved, us at length the path la ought ue to them after a sharp descent:, that hey were recced In by a high humtoo stockade, for the most part in food condition, hut here and there troken down with decay. Through one of those gaps I pres ntly made my way and found myself unong the soaring columns of the inlms, hung aloft with clusters of the treat green nuts. Fallen palm fronds nade a carpet for my feet?very pleasint .after the rough and tangled way I tad traveled, and now and again one tf the coco nuts would fall down with i thud amid the green silence. One if these, which narrowly missed my lend, suggested that here~I had the ipporl unity of quenching very agreeibly the thirst of which I had become suddenly aware.* My claspknife soon nade an opening through the tough diell, and. seated ?/n the ground, I set my mouth to It, and, raising the nut above my head, allowed the "milk"? cool as spring water?to gurgle deliclously down my parched throat. When it length I, had drained It, and my tiend once more returned to its natural ingle, I was suddenly made awure that my poaching had not gone unobserved. "Jla I ha J" called a pleasant voice, Bvldently Irrlonglng to a man of an "Hal Ha!" Called a Pleasant Voice. unusually till I and loan figure who wan approaching me through the palm trunks; "so you have discovered my hidden paradise?my Alrtnous Karden, so to nay;" and he quoted two wellknown linos of Homer in the orlKlnul Greek, adding: "or If you prefer It In Pope's transhit Ion, which I think? don't you!?remains the best: Close to the gates a spacious garden Ilea. Froaa dcfsnde^anrt In^jemenj , , ? . ~m*=r~ "and bo on. Alas! for an old man's memory I It grows shorter und shorter ?like his life, eh? Never mind, you are welcome, sir stranger, mysteriously tossed up here like Ulysses, on our Island Coast." I gazed with natural wonderment at this strung*' Individual, who thus In the heart of the wilderness had saluted me with .a meticulously pure English accent, und welcomed me in a quotation from lIoniorTn the original Greek. Who, In the devil's name,' was this odd character who, I saw, as I tThe First Bottle of Writes IMr. M. VnDnrrn, Engineer, O. R. A L lty., 17 Highland St., Grand Rapids. Mich. The Columbia 1641 MAIN STREET, Street Paving, Sii Culverts, Flc Anything ir ESTIMATES GLAT OIL MILLS And We have a large stock of Cotton made by Howe Scale Co. Also lot We carry everything in the wa; Belt. Large stock of Pump Jacki on some of our Spec'al Friction ! almost equal to Leather Belt. COLUMBIA SUPPLY ! I FOR S4LE 50 a 79 Acres 2m One Mile ' From Patrick call W. M. IVL Arcade II COLUMBIA k The Great* In Good mfFYttrfr (n f PERFECT < p- g iSSam U ^WRIG j^Tfmrnrw Sealed TlehtI The Flaw looked closer at hlra, was, as he had hinted, quite an old mati, though his unusual erectness and eprightllnessof -manner, lent him an Illusive air of youth? Who on eurth was he?and how did lie happen In the middle of this haunted wood? (To Be Continued Next Week) OLIVER TYPEWRITER: * Good as new; guraptccd perfect condition. Can he bought for $25.00?A real bargain. CRAWFORD JEWELRY CO. Cheraw, S. C. perunaT Entirely Free from Catarrh of the Stomach "Peruna has positively done for me nhat ninny doctor* fnllrd to do. 1 have been tlmo and again " compelled to take to my bed for days. The first bottle of Peruna pave rellof and while- I always keen It In the house for emergencies, I consider myself entirely free from cstnrrh of the stomach, the trouble from which I suffered for so long beforo taking this remedy." Liquid or Tablet Form Sold Everywhere Ask Yonr Ilcalrr Concrete Co. COLUMBIA, S. C. iewalks, Bridges >ors, Walks ) Concrete >LY FURNISHED ? i COTTON MILLS Beam Scales complete with Frame of Cotton Truck*, y of Rubber, Candy, and Leather i, Pump* and Cylinder*. Try u* Surface Belt; will give you service COLUMBIA, S. C. 823 Weit Gervais Street ! Acres cleared. 73 Acres in i limit of town limit of Patrick; cres cleared; dwelling; necessary uildings. 1 acre in town of Pat; 6-room dwelling, necessary outlings; fruit trees, grapes, etc. os and terms reasoanble. For her information write, wire or on \NNING iuilding V, S. C. " est Name '_ f ~ iftank of %h The Oldest, Largest Bank in Chesterl 4 Per Cent. Paid on Saving* D'-positi See Us \ C. C. Dou ;lass, R. E. Rivers, President. D M. J. Hough, Vice-President. D. I If Your Need Is Legitin within the help oi tice, it will he gla And in any pleased to have any business pre you. Our only exc a Bank is the S er; so consider THE FARME ruby, south c r. H. BURCH, R. m. NEWS< President. \'.-Pre Our Savings Pian Is I I When Death obey: 1 Instead of I Comr Ij There will he soni || insuring your life. S b Trust Company polic jj-ji in every respect. ICii eiterfield Lo, C. C. DOUGLAS * ALSO FIRE, ACCIDENT, IIEA1 INSURAf We Buy and Sell Real E mm. DR. L. H.tKOTIl, -vr ' Dental Surgeon 14 Chesterfield, S. C. M ^ Office on second floor in Rosi Building. All who desire my services will rt 'I:i please see me at Chesterfield, as 1 lave discontinued my visits to other "ll towns. * 1 Pan DR. R. L. McMftNUS . ''"ii Dentist 4 Office over Bank of Chesterfield. Will visit Pageland ever^ Tuesday; ; Mt. Croghan every Wednesday. Other days in Chesterfield. ^ ' : Prices reasonable. All work guar ' anteed J. ARTHUR KNIGHT Attorney?at-Law ^ Office in Courthouse V . Chesterfield, S. C. ^ HANNA & HUNLEY f* ?Attorneys? , I R E. Ilanna, C. L. Hunley, t'heraw. Chesterfielr Offices; The Courthouse, Chesterfield Bank of Cheraw Bldg., Cheraw "Why Tut Up With Rats for Years," lif Wrjtes N. Windsor, Farmer. "Years ago I bought some rat pois- / o* , which nearly killed our fine watch am! dog. It so scared us that we suffered a long time with rats until my neighbor told me about RAT-SNAP. That's mu the sure rat killer and a safe one." ; ten Three sizes, 25c, 50c, $1.00. Sold and cr|o guaranteed by Farmers Hardware ? Davit Q'are DCal ?*UK CO ' A ?' I L 1 4/ -iU/7U I I Pr | 1 ' R fimtflif Kept Right ? eaterfieldMH and Stronyert $1.00 Start* An Account Cashier. . L. Smith, Assist. -Cashier V^H H. Douglass A*sist. Cashier f^D IN 1 j sound banking prac- I dly met at this Bank. B event we shall be 1 you call on us w ith 1 )blem that confronts use for existence as ervice we can renus always. RS BANK :arolina DM M. L. RALEY, sident Cashier. Interesting I s J / nands e excuse for not outhern Life and ies are up-to-date * an $ Ins. Co. >S, Manager I,TH, II4IL, LIVE STOCK >ICE state?Money Loaned r 1 LLS RATS miff that's HAT-SNAI', tin- ohk ,l>lf roddTlt <i? Aroyer. ('nines in s no mixing v ith other food. r money baciv if it fails. >c. size (1 cake) enough for try, Kitchen or Cellar. )c. size (2 cakes) lor Chicken so, coups or small buddings. 1.00 siz.e (5 cakes) enough for all 1 and out-buildings, storage build, or factory buildinf^. Sold and Guaranteed by nrmers' Hardware Co., Square I Drug Co. and A. F. Davis. ASHCRAFTS mdition Powders V high-class remedy for horses 1 nudes in poor condition and nred of a tonic. Huilds soli.', scle and fat; cleanses the sy-; l, thereby producing a smooth >ssy coat of heir, Packed <n it ^ l?' ^ j W. tL LAN*Y ?