SUNKEN TREASURE.
It was about ten o'clock in the evening when Ed Butler arrived at his
sister's house.
The location we may as well state was up in the Bronx, beyond Port
Morris docks--we do not care to be more definite.
It was back of a little strip of water front which as yet remained
unimproved.
Entering the house after a few words with Mrs. Pow Chow, who seemed
disposed to shield her husband from blame, charging that Ed "struck him
first," and so on, the three found themselves seated in the kitchen.
Pow lit a cigarette, and, turning to his wife, asked:
"Well, Ethel, shall I tell Eddie what we want of him to-night?"
"You can do as you like," replied the girl, "but if it was me I wouldn't
tell him a blessed thing. I'd just make him do it, that's all."
"Do what?" demanded Ed, whose temper was rising under the contemptuous
way in which the girl seemed disposed to treat him. "You will find that
it won't be so easy to make me do what I don't want to, I guess."
"Sure," said Pow. "Now don't be so soon, Ethel. Eddie's a good boy. He's
a kind of brother of mine, too."
"Not on your life!" cried Ed. "Ethel is no sister of mine."
"I could slap your face for you, you sassy little brat!" cried the girl,
springing up. "How dare you talk like that? I guess I have a right to
marry who I like. I'm of age, anyhow."
"Sit down!" cried the Chinaman. "Sit down and hold your tongue."
Then they began scrapping, Ethel resenting this kind of talk.
Ed thought it a good chance to try to pull out.
While they were in the midst of it he jumped up and made a bolt for the
door, but Pow Chow was too quick for him.
The Chinaman got him by the neck in the hall and dragged him back,
jamming him down into a chair.
"Now, now, now, Eddie!" he cried. "Don't make it any harder for me than
you have to. I want to be good to you, but this is the limit. Be good,
and you won't regret it--that's right. Say, Ethel, there's no use in us
quarreling. According to your own account you and Eddie never could pull
together. Go on upstairs and leave him to me."
Somewhat to Ed's surprise the girl flounced out of the room without a
word.
Pow Chow lit another cigarette and offered the package to Ed.
"No, I don't want to be drugged again," growled Ed.
"You need have no fear. I only made them give you that cigar to keep you
quiet. It was just opium. A little of it hurts nobody. I want to be a
friend to you, Ed. Now let me tell you that it was all a surprise to me
when I found who it was those two fellows had captured last night, but
when I saw you it occurred to me that you being such, a bully swimmer
and diver, that you were just the fellow I wanted--see?"
Wily Pow Chow!
He had touched Ed on his weak point, interesting him at once.
For Ed had a record for swimming, and particularly for diving.
It was his hobby and his pride.
Of course, he at once began to wonder in what direction his talents in
this line were to be displayed.
"Use me how?" he asked.
"You remember those papers?" pursued Pow Chow.
"What Ethel stole from my father?"
"Yes."
"I know they were papers father found when the carpenters were altering
over our kitchen a few weeks ago, that's about all."
"Not all, Ed. You knew that Mr. Butler expected to make money out of
them?"
"I heard him say so--yes."
"But you don't know how, nor what it was all about?"
"No."
"Nor am I going to tell you, for now that you have brought the Bradys in
on the business, they being Secret Service men, it might get you into
trouble."
"A lot you care about me."
"More than you think, perhaps. I will tell you this, they referred to
money which has been hidden under water long ago. I know the place. It
is close by here, Ed. Remember when your father went to New York after
finding the papers?"
"Yes, I do."
"Well, he located the place then, or pretty near it, but not being a
swimmer, he could do nothing, so he came home to think it over. He told
your mother, and she told Ethel, and Ethel told me, but what none of us
knew was just where this money was hidden; that the old man, wise guy
that he is, kept to himself, but he wasn't wise enough not to write it
down, and that's what he did. He put that paper along with the rest.
Ethel got the whole bunch before she came away. I have them now."
"And the money you stole from my mother!" cried Ed bitterly.
"Yes," was the cool reply. "We thought we might as well make a clean
sweep. But to get back to business. I don't know how to swim. As it
happens, I don't know anyone who does. My people are not much given to
swimming and diving, so when fortune threw you in my way I at once
thought that I might as well use you. All in the family, you know. Will
you be sensible and help? or will you be ugly and force me to make you
trouble? I hired this house so as to be near the spot. I am prepared to
act to-night. If you'll help me out, it's halves between us. What do you
say?"
"How can I say anything when I know so little? How much money is there?"
"Sixty thousand dollars."
"And who does it belong to?"
"Uncle Sam!"
"The Government?"
"Yes."
"Who hid it?"
"Oh, well, since you insist upon knowing, it was hidden by a pension
agent who used to live in that house of yours up at Albany years ago. He
robbed the Government. His wife was sick and dying; that's what made him
sneak back to Albany. She died. He must have gone crazy, for he wrote
out an account of where he had hidden the money. This he hid in the
house, and then shot himself. Your father, who works in the pension
office, as you know, knew all about the business. It happened ten years
ago. Five years ago he hired the same house. When he was clearing out
things in the kitchen to get ready for the carpenters, he came across
the papers. That's the whole story, Ed. He would have swiped the money
himself if he had been able to get it. Now it's my turn."
"I don't believe it."
"Never mind whether you do or not. Will you help me get that money, Ed?
That's the point."
Ed had been doing a lot of thinking.
If he refused he could see nothing ahead for himself but trouble.
There was nothing to hope from Ethel.
He believed Pow Chow bad enough to kill him, and he was not at all sure
that Ethel would not urge him on.
On the other hand, he was sure the Chinaman could not swim, and he felt
that if he could once get the money there was nothing to hinder him from
swimming away with it.
The boy's reasoning, right or wrong, brought him around to the
determination to make the attempt.
That Pow Chow had any intention of giving up one dollar in his clutches
Ed did not for an instant believe.
"All right," he said. "I'll go you, Pow. I only hope you mean to play
fair with me."
Pow assured him in the most solemn manner that he meant nothing else.
He seemed greatly pleased at Ed's ready assent.
Ethel was called and told.
She had recovered her good humor by this time and she made herself very
agreeable.
A supper was spread and they all sat down to it.
Pow Chow was very curious to know how Mr. Butler ever came to take up
with the Bradys.
Ed could not answer this, however.
He had been told nothing about the Bradys till his father, being taken
sick, ordered him to go to New York and meet them.
Inwardly he was wondering what his father's real intentions were.
As for his mother, Ed knew her too well to imagine for a moment that
Uncle Sam would ever have seen any of the stolen money if she could get
her hands on it.
It is a sad thing for a boy to have no confidence in his mother, but
such was Ed Butler's case.
Ed now asked to see the paper, which his father had drawn up, but the
wily Chinaman refused to exhibit it.
"I've been over the ground. I'll point out the place. That will be all
you need," he said.
"And when do we go?" asked Ed.
"We will make it midnight," replied Pow Chow.
"Hark!" whispered Ethel suddenly. "It seems to me that I hear someone
outside the window."
Pow, with a muttered exclamation, started to rise.
"Sit down, clumsy," breathed Ethel. "Let me see."
She slipped out into the hall and opened the back door suddenly.
Instantly the sound of skurrying feet was heard.
"Pow! Eddie! Quick!" cried the girl.
They were right behind her, but too late to see any one.
There was no fence around the yard. Beyond was a vacant lot overgrown
with bushes.
"Two Chinks!" cried Ethel. "I saw them dive in among the bushes there."
Pow was furious.
Drawing his revolver, he ran out, but Ethel called him back, and he
came.
"You have been talking, sir!" she cried. "That's what it means. You have
been shooting off your mouth to your Chinese friends about this
business. That's what, and it is a shame now that we have got Eddie to
help us, and everything is so nicely arranged!"
Pow swore he had not, but Ed did not believe him.
The Chinaman seemed very nervous after that, and he kept on the watch
for some time, but nothing more was seen or heard of the intruders.
Midnight came at last.
After the alarm all conversation was held in whispers.
Ed suggested that they get on the job.
Ethel was for postponing everything, but Pow was for going ahead, and he
had his way.
About half-past twelve, after a careful look around, Ed and the Chinaman
started out.
Ethel wanted to go along, but her husband sat down upon it.
Pow ordered her to lock the doors and windows and keep close till their
return.
He seemed very nervous as they walked on down a narrow lane which took
them to the shore.
Here there was a stretch of rocks against which the water came.
Beyond was a ruinous pier, at the head of which was the foundation of a
large building apparently destroyed by fire a long time before.
The neighborhood was lonely enough at all times, and now it appeared to
be utterly deserted save for themselves.
"If it wasn't for that scare we had, I should feel sure that we were
going straight to success," growled the Chinaman. "I only wish I could
have seen those fellows for myself. I can't imagine who they could have
been."
"Mebbe they were the same ones who brought me up here," suggested Ed.
Pow, however, did not think so.
They went down on the pier.
The tide was up and the night dark.
"Now then, what am I to do?" demanded Ed.
"It is like this," said Pow. "The paper written by the pension agent
says that he put the money in a water-tight tin case, tied a heavy stone
to it, and sunk it alongside the seventh pile from the end of the pier
where the water is about fifteen feet deep at high tide. Is it that now,
I wonder?"
Ed did not know.
Having been brought up in Albany, tides were a mystery to him.
"I can only try it," he said, "and I may as well go about it now."
He began to undress.
"Look about well when you get into the water," said Pow. "Those fellows
might be hiding under the pier."
Ed assented.
Stripped in a minute, he stood looking down into the water.
"Why don't you go ahead? What are you hanging back for?" the Chinaman
demanded.
"A fellow hates to dive where he doesn't know the depth, especially at
night," replied Ed.
"Oh, go ahead! I only wish I could dive. I wouldn't hesitate."
"Well, here goes!" cried Ed, and throwing out his hands he dove off the
pier.