MARIE DUCROIX’ SEA CHEST
When the disappointed jokers reached the camp, Jerry was found in the
big tent, his head covered with a blanket, moaning and beseeching mercy
from the spirit of the incensed Black Pirate. Deciding that their joke
had gone far enough, the boys persuaded the colored lad to withdraw his
head and cease his lamentations. Then Bob explained how the paper had
been manufactured and how Jerry had been sent on his wild goose chase
as an object lesson on the evils of telling falsehoods.
“Dar wa’n’t no ghoses?” exclaimed the agitated lad. “An’ dar wa’n’t no
blood writin’?”
He was reassured that there was no reality to the alleged directions,
that all would be forgiven, and that he would be allowed to remain in
camp on his promise to abstain from romancing in the future. The boy
promised, even crossing his heart. Then, as if ashamed to speak of it
before, Bob said:
“You didn’t find anything, did you, Jerry?”
The colored boy, considerably bolder by this time, scratched his head
and looked at the tent opening.
“Don’t be afraid to tell,” added Bob, laughing. “I was your partner,
but I didn’t go with you. Anything you found is yours.”
“Ah done did fine a li’l box,” answered Jerry, hesitatingly, “but Ah
reckon ’tain’t no gold in it. An’ wen dat ghos’ come at me, Ah frowed
it――” At that point, Jerry paused, while the other boys looked at
each other curiously. The colored boy remembered his vow to tell the
truth. “Ah frowed it hyah,” added Jerry. Signing his companions to
follow him, he passed out of the tent, advanced with a candle into
the scrub palmetto behind the camp and reappeared with a small black
box resembling a glove case. The hearts of the four boys thumped with
astonishment. One glance told that the box was old and protected with
metal strips. A wave of chagrin swept over Jerry’s tormentors.
“But dat ain’t all,” volunteered the bolder growing Jerry. “De lid o’
de big box done cave in, an’ Ah grabbed de li’l box. Dar’s a _big_ box!”
“Probably some fisherman’s lost kit,” suggested Hal.
But, when Bob took the little box from Jerry’s hands, heard the sound
of metal within it, pointed to the hard black wood and the oxydized
metal keyhole, bands and corners, all the boys knew it was no common
find. With a sigh, the romantic-minded Bob handed the box to its
discoverer, and the confused colored boy began the task of opening it.
Now the opening of what may be a real treasure box is no common
incident. The keyhole was filled with rust, and while Mac brought the
hatchet, a blanket was spread on the ground and extra candles lit. The
metal ornamentation did not restrain the colored boy. Before the other
boys could stop him, he had smashed the top of the box. As its contents
tumbled out on the blanket, there was a groan of disappointment from
Jerry. Instead of a shower of money――golden doubloons and silver
pieces-of-eight, there was but a confused heap of odds and ends.
“Some woman’s truck,” exclaimed Hal. It was. But when, ten minutes
later, the “truck” had been laid out in order, even imaginative Bob was
trembling with astonishment. From one of the first articles examined,
a little oblong silver card case, it was easily understood that the
box was no pirate loot. The case was inscribed: “Marie Ducroix, New
Orleans, 1807.”
With trembling fingers, and bulging eyes, the articles in the case,
mildewed and discolored but not the less valuable on that account, were
examined in turn with feverish eagerness. The next morning, a list was
made including these items:
1. Card case and chain, silver, marked: “Marie Ducroix, New Orleans,
1807.” Eight indecipherable cards in the case.
2. Plain gold ring, inscribed within: “J. D. to M. D.”
3. Unset cameo, 1½ inches by 1 inch; figure, girl with vase.
4. Miniature portrait, 2 inches by 1½ inches; head of man with
pompadour hair, smooth face, high collar and frilled shirt; set in a
gold frame with rim of diamond brilliants.
5. Child’s gold ring with garnet set.
6. Woman’s gold ring with 3-carat diamond setting.
7. Woman’s gold ring, small diamond surrounded by six rubies.
8. Gold five-franc piece, worn smooth and with hole in edge.
9. Six gold waistcoat buttons.
10. Two slipper buckles, gold.
11. Woman’s brooch in a circle of pearls.
12. Tiara, small but elaborate pattern of gold, with central figure of
bird outlined with small diamonds and rubies.
13. Belt buckle containing six half-carat diamonds.
While the boys knelt, their eyes reveling in the glint of the jewels,
Mac sprang up.
“You don’t mean that this coon gets all that stuff?”
Jerry, never opposing Mac very strongly on any proposition, shrank back.
“That’s my idea,” remarked Bob. The other boys nodded their heads
approvingly.
“Ah ain’t reckon dat’s all mine,” ventured Jerry, in turn. “Ef Ah kin
hab de gold crown fo’ mah ole mammy, yo’ all kin hab dem rings an’
sich.”
This was manifestly unfair. For a long time, the question was debated.
The colored boy insisted that the little box was only a part of the
treasure――that a larger box remained untouched. What might be in
this box was unknown, but if it was of considerable value, there was
a feeling that the other members of the expedition had some sort of
a claim on it. Finally, and partly at Captain Joe’s suggestion, it
was agreed by all that, of the treasure already found and yet to be
examined, Jerry would be liberally compensated with a share equal to
one-third.
This decision reached, Captain Joe called attention to the fact that
it was half past one o’clock. But the hour meant nothing to the gold
frenzied lads. With extra candles, an impetuous cavalcade made its way
at once toward Oak Tree Point, Captain Joe protesting but following.
Securing Jerry’s abandoned lantern, there was a rush over the smooth
sand to the colored boy’s excavation.
The moon was low, a stiff breeze was blowing in from the sea and
sweaters were not out of place. Jerry was not mistaken. There was a
larger box or chest, part of which had been uncovered. No attempt was
made to free the box, but Mac, with the shovel, soon removed the top.
The jeweled contents of “Marie Ducroix’ glove case” were for a time
forgotten as the articles in the old chest were lifted out and laid
on the white sand. Above all, was the unmistakable odor of mildewed
and decayed clothing. In a few moments, the sand was littered with an
assortment of things such as no pirate ever dreamed of concealing.
“It’s certainly a woman’s trunk,” exclaimed Tom, “a big cypress chest.”
“Must have belonged to this same Madame Ducroix,” suggested Hal.
“Then, it wasn’t buried intentionally,” declared Bob. “I’ll bet there
was a shipwreck. Like as not Marie Ducroix was on her way to Europe
from New Orleans. This box must have been washed up here by the sea.
The ship may be out yonder beyond the Keys.”
The possessions of Marie Ducroix came to light in two layers. The
bottom of the box was filled with discolored and rotted garments,
not one of which was worth preservation, although all gave signs of
one-time richness. These included silk dresses, gossamer shawls and
veils, silk slippers and hose, dainty handkerchiefs (all enclosed in
what had been tissue paper until the dampness had resolved it into a
gray coating) and a package of laces, a few inches of which now and
then showed the pattern.
On top of these, were other articles, each covered with a thin shell of
dissolved paper:
A hand beaten silver sugar urn and a tall hot-milk pitcher of the same
material; a silver coffee pot with a rotted ebony handle; a long
handled silver dipper (the handle eighteen inches long); two dozen each
of small silver coffee and dessert spoons; one dozen each of silver
fruit knives with ivory handles and forks. Each of these pieces was
marked with an engraved “D”.
Packed carefully in what had been a pasteboard box, were thirty crystal
pendants, and in fairly well preserved linen cloth, a crystal and
silver epergne and a crystal compote or fruit dish. The latter was
broken. Alongside these articles was a thin Malacca cane with a gold
head, marked “J. D”.
But beneath these articles, came the prize that set each youngster on
edge――gold money――the only real valuable that a boy wants to dig out of
the sand. Secreted in a corner of the chest, was a small leather bag,
heavy as lead and intact.
“Here she is!” yelled Mac, as his greedy fingers fell on this article.
“If it ain’t gold, I’m a goat.”
With one stroke of a knife, the leather thong tied about the mouth of
the sack was cut away and out on the sand, rolled the jingling climax
of the great discovery――nearly a thousand dollars in yellow gold coins.
Silks and laces might crumble into dust; silver might coat itself with
a leaden pall, but the royal metal had held its sunny sheen through its
long entombment. Not until Pensacola was reached again, did the club
members know just what they had found, but in time the values were set
down as:
Eleven English sovereigns $ 53.35
Two Peruvian piastres .96
Three louis-d’or 25.00
Twenty-three U. S. gold eagles 230.00
450 French five-franc pieces 450.00
―――――――
$759.31
Even Captain Joe forgot the waning hours. Even to the last scrap of
silk and crumbled lace, the full contents of the cypress chest was
carried to the camp. Hal was inclined to think that some one should
stand guard, but Captain Joe ridiculed the idea. Faint traces of dawn
were already in the east when, piling the new found treasure in the
middle of the tent and covering it with a blanket, the first full day
in camp came to a glorious end.
The boys had planned a week of lazy fishing, daily flights in the
aeroplane and “slathers of sleep” as Mac put it. But the camp the
next morning was more like the office of some hotel. It did not seem
possible to crowd in even the necessary things. There was to have been
an early morning excursion in the _Anclote_; then a noon rest and a
long afternoon of tarpon fishing.
These plans were upset. Tom, Hal, Jerry and Captain Joe decided to sail
to Tarpon Springs with the valuables; to pack them securely and forward
them by express to Pensacola in care of Mrs. Allen. A strong new trunk
was to be bought for this purpose, and Mrs. Allen notified by special
letter to look out for the coming fortune.
The following week, when the grand appraisement and division took place
in Mrs. Allen’s little parlor, a jeweler estimated the value of the
silver and jewelry――attaching no value to the thirty crystal pendants,
which had undoubtedly once ornamented a chandelier in some spacious
plantation home――at two thousand and sixty-two dollars. Jerry’s share
of that and one-third of the money was nine hundred and forty dollars.
The colored boy still stuck to the tiara, valued at five hundred
dollars, but his more practical mother dismissed Jerry’s fancy and
voted for money――as far as that would go.
Mrs. Blossom and her son were, therefore, given seven hundred and
fifty-nine dollars in gold; the two dozen dessert spoons, estimated at
thirty dollars; the crystal and silver epergne and the crystal compote
dish at forty dollars; the pearl brooch, said to be worth one hundred
dollars for Mrs. Blossom and the gold waistcoat buttons for Jerry at
twenty dollars. The crystal pendants were thrown in for good measure
for Mrs. Blossom, and the cane was voted to Jerry.
Of that which remained, Captain Joe was persuaded to accept the silver
fruit knives and forks, worth forty dollars, and then the four members
of the club divided the balance, estimated to be worth eighteen hundred
and forty-one dollars, in four portions. The chief prize, of course,
was the diamond and ruby tiara for the hair, put down by the appraiser
as worth five hundred dollars. When there was some hesitation about who
should take this, Mrs. Balfour offered to accept it as Bob’s share,
which was four hundred and sixty dollars, and to pay the difference.
Mac came out of the division with the three-carat diamond ring, Hal drew
the belt buckle with the six diamonds and Tom’s prize was the ring with
the single diamond and six rubies, the three boys dividing between them,
the various small articles remaining. Mrs. Allen was given the scraps of
lace and other relics.
But all this came later. No sooner had the “treasure fleet” departed
on its way to the mainland than Bob and Mac hurried to the long idle
aeroplane. Readjusting the plane coverings and cleaning and oiling
the engine, the two boys prepared for an excursion. When the light
framework had been lifted on the starting wheels once more, Mac began
to rub his chin.
“I kin shin up a mast all right,” he said, a little doubtfully, “but I
ain’t never been much of a hand fur steeples an’ sich like.”
Bob looked at him and laughed.
“We’re only goin’ a little ways――just over to Tampa for the papers and
mail――only twenty-five miles or so. We can be back in about an hour, if
you like,” explained Bob. “I thought you might want to drop a postal to
your folks.”
“Well, what do you think o’ that?” exclaimed Mac. “Fifty miles or
more to spend a cent. Say, Bob,” he asked suddenly, “do you reckon
everybody is a goin’ to have one o’ them things after while――jes’ like
automobiles?”
“Unless they have something better,” answered Bob. “They are pretty
crude now.”
In three quarters of an hour, the _Anclote_ had landed in the rear of
the cigar factory in Tampa; Mac had gone into the city and bought the
morning papers――even mailing a postcard to make Bob’s joke good――and
sometime before eleven o’clock, the airship was on the island beach
again.
“Ain’t you goin’ to the hotel to see your mother?” asked Mac, when Bob
prepared to set out on the return. Bob winked his eye.
“Not while the telegraph is working between here and Chicago,” he
laughed. “My father has funny ideas sometimes.”
This was Monday. That afternoon, there was a fishing cruise, the _Three
Sisters_ having returned, and Mac remained behind to keep camp and
prepare supper. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday passed in a series of
new delights. Aeroplane flights were made seaward and landward――with
Bob or Tom in charge, for the other boys never quite reached the point
of attempting to direct the airship, and between these there were
excursions by schooner to the other islands, the mainland far to sea.
Friday was the momentous day. On that day, Bob and Tom were to attempt
the crowning event of the week’s outing――the flight by aeroplane over
the Everglades. The eventful morning broke with signs of a perfect day.