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.

We became animated with a new purpose; and the old sailor seized a shovel and began vigorously to throw more earth from the excavation; but darkness was falling, and we urged him to wait until the next morning.

“What about the sand already thrown out?” some one exclaimed at this juncture.  The suggestion had hardly been offered before we all bent forward, and thrust our hands into the pile of wet, black sand lying about us.

I at once felt something round and suggestive.  “Look at this!” I cried.  It was a blackened gold coin!  In the darkness we hurriedly sifted the sand with our fingers; and each one soon found several pieces of money.

With feverish energy, we thus labored until late in the night, meeting with constant success; and, when we stopped, every one had a precious pile to carry back to the shore.  The coins were all corroded and misshapen through the action of the salty mud in which they had lain, and the disturbance caused by the roots of the trees.  A few silver coins were found, but all were in a very worn condition; some being little more than ragged discs of the thickness of paper.  Others, or the remains of them, crumbled into a black powder at the touch of our fingers.  The gold was in better preservation; and we secured a goodly store of it.

We secreted our treasure in the woods on shore, and early the next morning returned to our work.  I can well remember our exultant feeling as we set out in our boats.  “Boys,” Mr. Landstone called out, as we were sailing over the narrow stretches of water toward the island, “how do you feel?”

“I feel like—­like—­” I answered, rising in my seat and lifting my hat to cheer.

“None of that!” he said quickly—­but I knew I was about to express the excited feeling of us all.

As to our further success, I would say that it was unabated during nearly the whole day.  I think we secured every piece of precious metal that had been buried beneath the tree.  The following day we uprooted the other tree, but failed to find any trace of more booty.  We concluded that the remaining chest had probably been removed; but that is still an unsettled question.

Besides the coin, we had discovered the remains of much silver plate; but it was of little value, being almost entirely destroyed.  But the gold—­there was an abundance of it, and we were all made rich!