[Illustration: The Little Island Among the Marshes]




MONEY ISLAND.


This is the story of the buried treasure on Money Island, which lies in
Greenville Sound, not far from Wilmington, North Carolina. It was told
by Mr. Jonathan Landstone many years ago, and is a part of another story
which follows, and which will explain something further about the
mysterious little island that blinks in the sunlight and tries to hide
its secret. The words are Mr. Landstone's and were written by him, to
make sure that the story would be told correctly when the time came to
publish it.


(Mr. Landstone's MS.)

My grandfather lived in Charleston, S.C. My home is in Philadelphia. In
my boyhood I visited him several times. He was a fine old man, and was
very fond of me. He used to tell me many stories of the good old
colonial days. He said his father was a pirate; but that pirates in
those days were gentlemen. Although they made game of the King's revenue
on the high seas, it was regarded as nothing very wrong; and, although
they played havoc with the Spanish shipping, it was but the assertion of
a time-honored right of Englishmen, who never did love Spaniards. They
were, many of them, ingloriously hanged, it is true, but it was by the