Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 91: The Lost Cache — page 10: what you’re looking at

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12 THE LOST CACHE. that the Indian murderéd the white man, and would have taken the property if he could have found the clue to it, How long has the paper been in the possession of your old trapper ?” “ He got it more than two years ago; but.he had not been to the settlements since that time, and had: hardly seen a white face. It was quite useless to him, as he could not read, and would not have been able to puzzle it out if he eould have read it. He got out of money when he was~-here, and I gave him fifty dollars -for the paper.” “You think you combined charity and speculation, I sup- pose. You might have made a worse use of your money, for I have no doubt that the poor fellow was in need. In order to consider the question logically, we must take it for granted that the Indian and the trapper both spoke the truth. It is rather hard to believe a story that comes to us through a lying Indian and an ignorant hunter, but we. must admit the truth of it, or the investigation stops. We must ~ also believe that the white man spoke the truth about finding and concealing the treasure, though it is straining credibility to believe the three statements. If he did find a treasure, what kind of a treasure was it? It is not likely to have been any thing else than gold or silver. I have often thought, when I have been in the mountains, and the country bordering on them, that gold might be found there, and have wished that I had time and money to spare, so that I might make an ex- . amination. JI consider it possible, therefore, that a treasure Ynay have been found. It is also possible that a white man might have been held as a captive among the Indians for a long time, and might have finally escaped, as you were told by the trapper, who was told by the Crow. We may thus admit—though the admission amounts to very litthe—the pos- sibility of such a concealed treasure. We will now examine this document, to see whether it contains any internal evidence of being genuine, and, if so, whether it will tell us where the treasure is. Please hand me an atlas, Harry.” Harry brough* an atlas, and Myers opened it, spreading the paper out before him, as if he wus fond of the investigation of abstruse questions. “ Look here, Harry,’ said he, pointing with his pencil comicbooks.com