Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial402dodg).pdf/604

1028 “Pirates!” I exclaimed, in mock-heroic style. “It could n’t be pirates,” returned Will, taking me seriously; “the gun is too modern for that.”

“Well then, smugglers maybe. Their boat has probably been wrecked here. I ‘ll bet there 's lots of treasure in this load of sand. Let ‘s see what else we can find.”

We began poking into the coarse sand with sticks. Presently I struck something hard and black. In another moment I had uncovered an Italian stiletto with curiously carved handle.

“There!" I said triumphant! “that looks like pirates now, does n't it? There sure to be gold where you find pistols and knives.



A loud laugh interrupted me. “Ha, ha, ha! So you ‘ve got the gold fever, have you?” laughed Mr. Porter. “You ’ve got your logic backward, young man; guns and knives are not an infallible sign of gold, but find your gold first, and then the firearms are sure to appear. We have found lots of firearms and daggers of every conceivable form of ugliness, but as for treasure, it's mighty scarce, though I must admit that we have found some gold, too, It is too bad to spoil your romance, but there is no blood-curdling tale of piracy connected with those weapons, although, no doubt, they were once wielded by desperados. Sometime ago, the police in New York got very busy, and started an active campaign against the carrying of concealed weapons, They rounded up the criminals and collected an enormous amount of junk. The only way of disposing of it was to throw it into the sea, but instead of taking it out to deep water, they dumped it in the Lower Bay, right in the path of this channel we are now excavating.”

“But how about the gold?" I asked.



“Now that is not so easily accounted for, but probably it happened in this way; a number of years ago, the garbage of the city used to be hauled out to sea in scows and dumped. The work was done by contractors who were not overcareful to go as far as they were required to by the city authorities, and, when the patrol was not very vigilant, they would dump right into the bay. Now every one knows that valuable things sometimes find their way by accident into the garbage pail, This being the case, some of them are sure to find their way into our bins. One of the men who has been working here ever since the excavating began, has made a wonderful collection of coins. He has money from every part of the world—Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Chinese, and what not.

“I should think you would have some way of straining out the stuff,” remarked Will; “there must be a mint of money in it.”

“It would n't be worth while. It would cost far more money than would ever he recovered. By the way, you had better get out of that bin