Old Henry chuckled, and limped away; and we both laughed heartily at his droll yarn.  Jamesby enjoyed the tale particularly; and, although I felt that it might somehow be at my expense, I was duly amused.

When Jamesby descended from his hilarious heights, he turned to me rather gravely, and said, “Now, I want it from your own lips; did you really dig for money on Money Island?”

I answered, “I did.”

“And,” he continued, “was that a true story you told about it?”

“Now, Jamesby,” I replied, “I really cannot endure this doubt cast upon the truthfulness of my story.  I decline to discuss the matter.  You have read the paper, and you know me as the author of the story.”

“But,” he added in rather a comical tone, “there are some things which (with all due respect for your trustworthiness) call for a more positive confirmation.”

I knew I would not have written anything on so important a subject without proper consideration; and he knew it too.  However, I realized the fact that an effort to believe such a story as I had offered to the public may have made a somewhat weighty demand upon credulity, at least with some people.  To answer his last suggestion, I merely drew out of my pocket a copy of the “Savannah Morning News”, containing an account of a stranger’s mysterious movements about Warsaw Island near Savannah, and his sudden disappearance, leaving good evidence that he had carried with him a hidden treasure found there, and which tradition had stated lay upon the Island.  I also reminded him of the fact that Dutch Island near Savannah is full of what are known as “treasure holes”, which have been made by persons seeking the buried booty of the pirates of the olden times.  He knew all about these; and he had also heard that some of the enterprising explorers into the mysteries of that island had been successful.

But Jamesby was still incredulous.  So I turned the conversation to my fowls; and he was very ready to admit that I had told the genuine thing in describing to him some of the excellent points of my prize birds.  There was no doubt that I could exhibit several specimens which any fancier would be proud of.

Jamesby remained to tea, so that we could go to the lodge together, and I enjoyed the quiet stroll down town with him.  We had hardly entered the hall, 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.”