July 30

I read that poster, and wondered what it was all about.  July 30th,—­that was to-morrow.  Then I remembered what the boy on the horse-car had said about “the Company” and the excursion.  This was the thing he had meant.  Well, it was nothing to me,—­I had only to find out if Captain Bannister and the “Hoppergrass” were there, and if not, to go back to Lanesport.  “Gold from the vasty deep,”—­ I wondered what that was.  The buried treasure on Fishback Island, —­had it anything to do with that?

Half way across the causeway was a wooden bridge, painted white.  It spanned a narrow stream, not much more than a creek, running through the marsh.  This was the only water which divided Rogers’s Island from the mainland.

On the railing of the bridge was tacked another pink poster.  This one said: 

Riches
from NEPTUNE’S Hoard
treasure
from the boundless main
why toil and slave all your lives
with the means for luxury at your
doors? 
Grand excursions to Rogers’s
island, July 30.  Steamer “May
Queen” Leaves Lanesport at
8.30 A. M., And 2 P. M.
The Metropolitan
Marine gold company
is endorsed by the leading financiers
and scientists of the world
and by
Hon.  J. Harvey Bowditch &
Deacon Enoch Chick
Lanesport

There were some hand-bills blowing around on the bridge, and I picked up one or two of them.  They were like the posters,—­about the Metropolitan Marine Gold Company, and the excursions to Rogers’s Island.  At the end of the causeway, where the road went up a little grade, there was a big sign, painted on white cloth, and fixed to some boards: 

The Metropolitan Marine gold company (Limited)

The road wound up the slope, and I followed it and turned the corner.  There was a great house, three stories high and as square as a child’s block.  If it had ever been painted, the paint had worn off, and the wood was almost black.  For a hundred years or more the wind and rain and snow had beaten against it,—­storms from the ocean, storms from the land, winds from all quarters, for except at one corner it was unprotected by trees.  It stood on high ground, and faced the open water of the bay.  Grass had grown rank all around, and there was no sign of anybody either indoors or out.  There was an enormous barn behind the house, as well as woodsheds, and hen-houses.