I remember that, after a long pause, I asked, to reassure myself, "Mr.
Landstone, do you really believe that story?" He laughed and said,
"Well, you see I am on an undertaking I have had in mind for nearly
fifty years. Yes, I believe those chests are there."

That was enough. I did not sleep an hour that night; and the next
morning we were early at the task of searching for the treasure. And a
stupendous undertaking it proved to be. All day we labored at one tree.
The roots were massive and wide-spread, and the work of cutting and
removing them required the utmost exertion. Finally, just before sunset,
we completed the task, and began to dig for the treasure in the earth
below.

Already water had begun to percolate into the hole, and ere we had gone
much deeper, it flooded it so that we found it impossible to continue
the excavation. Then we resorted to our sounding rod again for a last
ray of hope, and almost immediately it struck something hard! Our
spirits rose within us.

I tore off my clothes, and jumped into the water. After working for some
time, with the aid of a shovel, I brought to the surface a piece of
rusty sheet iron. Nothing more could be found. We gathered round the
worn sheet of metal, and held a solemn consultation.

The conclusion was reached that the piece of iron which we found was in
reality a part of one of Captain Kidd's chests, which had become
rust-eaten and crumbled, and which had been torn asunder by the growing
roots of the tree, and parts of it carried in various directions by
them as they had spread, scattering the contents through the ground.