carpenters coming one morning to begin the erection of the new building,
they found an immense excavation right where the old house stood. Now,
that old building was in former years used by a Portuguese as an inn for
the entertainment of sailors from the vessels in the port of Wilmington;
and, there being certain traditions in regard to some money having been
buried beneath it, it was natural to conclude that the excavation
resulted from an energetic effort to find the money. The hole was made
at night, but by whom it has never been found out. The incident was
shrouded in a mystery which has never been cleared."

We talked still further along that vein, the editor emphatically
asserting his assured belief in the possibility of recovering quantities
of gold from the seashore below Wilmington, and from the decaying hulks
of blockade runners that rise a little here and there above the waves,
where they met a disastrous check to their efforts to slip into the
harbor.

As we started out again upon the street, Jamesby said, "Well,
sir,--pardon my frankness--but I must say that I have never found your
company so interesting before; and I shall be equally frank in saying
that--I have never been able yet to believe half the tales I have heard
about the mysterious discovery of buried treasure. There is something so
unsubstantial about most of them. Of course, there may be some
exceptions, and--"

"Jamesby," I interrupted in good humor, "don't let your frankness expire
for the lack of the proper courage. Let your speech continue during the
whole run of an honest statement. But it's all right. I have some
indisputable proofs--"