, though, before the historian of the town, who is also a leading
Mason, approached me regarding my Money Island revelations. "Sir," he
said, "I regard it throughout as a most interesting and plausible
narrative; and I am glad we have been favored by being allowed to read
it. I have made a study of the pirates who infested our coast in the
early colonial days, and I know that this section, particularly the
lower region of the Cape Fear, was a favorite rendezvous for them. It
is known upon most reliable information that there are immense
quantities of captured treasure secreted along the coast, and the wonder
is that there have not been some really serious efforts to find it."

Another gentleman added, "Yes, and they also buried treasure further
down South; for at my old home (and I speak the honest trath) I have
stood in the hole from which my friend, Mr. Coachman, unearthed
accidentally a small fortune, which gave him a very comfortable start in
life."

The conversation lingered in this absorbing vein until the meeting was
opened, much to my relief; for I had been surfeited with the subject of
money finding for that day, at least. But that was not all; for, during
the solemnity of the opening exercises, I heard some one telling, in an
undertone, of a negro who had found a roll of old bank notes in a log
which had been hauled to a saw mill to be cut.

The next day I was still aware that I possessed an unusual attraction;
and I resigned myself patiently to the service of all my inquiring
friends. Jamesby actually stopped by my office to walk up with me at
lunch time. He was willing to move along slowly with me, for now in my
old age I find I have to walk slowly. I knew it would have been more
natural for him to have gone on briskly; but he was polite and assured
me that the pleasure of my company was better than too much time spent
at his meal.

We stopped on the way at a newspaper office. The editor and proprietor
had observed our approach and they were awaiting us with looks of amused
interest. "Hello!" the proprietor said cheerily, "you have really
stimulated the enterprise of the town. Why have you kept so reticent on
that subject all these years?"

Of course, I knew what subject was referred to; for I had been living
for those two days in an atmosphere filled with the phantoms of hidden
gold, buried treasure, marvelous discoveries, pirates and other engaging
topics of thought; and I now looked for nothing else.