Moundsville High School - Orospolitan Yearbook (Moundsville, WV)

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THE TREASURE One stormy day during the Christ- mas vacation Jack Richmond and his chum, Bob Tilden, Who was visiting him, decided to satisfy their curiosity in regard to the contents of the remain- ing two, unexplored trunks in the attic. The family had left for the day and the boys had the house, one of the oldest in Washington, to themselves. Sever- al days before they had been in the at- tic and explored all but two of the large assortment of barrels, boxes and trunks it contained. The attic was very large and con- tained many other things but the boys had eyes for nothing but two dusty, cow-hide trunks in the farthest and darkest corner. These they pulled out into the light and as neither was locked they raised the lid of the smaller, al- most with bated breath, to iind-noth- ing! Greatly disappointed they turn- ed to the other and although it proved harder to open, as the catch was stuck, it contents were soon revealed. It con- tained a great variety of clothing of the early nineteenth century and the boys hurriedly ransacked it, for, to tell the truth, they were hunting for something to shed some light on the hiding place of the hoard of Jack 7s. great grandfath- er. This money, according to family ,tradition, was supposed to have been .hidden when old Randolph Richmond had gone to war in 1812 to keep it from the invading British soldiers. But no writing could they find and at last they started to replace the clothing, but as they were shaking an old coat before laying it away they heard a rustling of paper, and upon investigating found a folded paper sealed with red wax. On the outside was inscribed: TO ANY OF MY DESOENDANTS WHO FIND THIS, OR TO BE GIV- EN TO THEM BY ANY OTHER FINDER Signed: RANDOLPH RICHMOND Therefore Jack felt that he was privileged to open it and carefully breaking the seal, saw at a glance that it contained several lines of writing in an old-fashioned hand. They read it together. 'A fool and his money are soon part- ed, this is one of the proverbs in this country. Although the seller lived up in the north he was in height five or five and one-half feet. The one from the west was said to own two or maybe three yards of moose. This making four-thousand moose, per pound, in gold, at the sum of 342,000 Another owned a large silver mine which con- tained about 10,000 feet of ore. The jewels were the fourth man's Ran- dolph, although he was a rich-manf As this seemed senseless to the boys they immediately decided it was in code and throwing the rest of the clothes back in the trunk, slammed the lid, and rushed down stairs to puzzle it out. After the failure of many high hopes, Bob suggested, 'fWliy not try every fifth word? f'It's the last hope be- cause we've tried everything else, Jack replied. In a few minutes he yelled, I've got it. And read the following: 'Money is in cellar, north tive feet, west two yards, four thousand gold,

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-l42,000 silver, 10,000 jewels. Randolph Richmond. Bob seemed dazed but Jack cried, Let's go and started for the cellar, grabbing a yard stick 0-11 the way. He then measured five feet from the north wall and six feet from the west wall, but they came to the intersection of the lines they were greatly disappointed for the stone tioor seemed solid as ever and much tapping proved that it con- tained no secret hole. But Bob. who had been looking at the instructions, saw that they said north tive feet, and at once saw their mistake. They had measured from the north instead of to- ward the north. He remeasured cor- rectly and found that the lines inter- sected on a small block of stone not half as large as the others. This stone, the-y saw, was not cemented in place, and with the aid of a poker they lifted it out. A small iron chest greeted their gaze and although it was very heavy it was at last on the floor beside the hole. They did not dare take the risk of opening the chest by force, and ruining the jewels, as it was locked, so they dragged it up the stairs into the den belonging to Jack 's father, They hid their find beneath a couch and prepared to guard it, with their lives as Jack expressed it. Wliile waiting for the return of Mr. Richmond they thought they would find out some- thing about Jack's ancestor who had hidden the chest. Going to one of the bo-okcases in the library they soon found that for which they were hunting -a manuscript book, entitled, The Richmond Family. This book, or the original of it, had been in the family even before they left England, soon af- ter the Revolutionary Waii'. Jack's father had had the manuscript type- written, so the boys did not have to struggle to read many unfamiliar hand- writings, as the book had been handed down from father to eldest son since the sixteenth century. They imme- diately turned to the part written by Randolph Richmond and his son, George Richmond. They found that Randolph Richmond had been killed in the War of 1812, while fighting for his adopted country, by a cousin, who was with the British forces. It told of find- ing, when the estate was settled, that a large amount of money and many of the family heirlooms had disappeared and the supposition that they had been hid- den by Randolph. From time to time, George Richmond told of vain searches for clues to its hiding place. Jack knew that his father would be very glad, because, although a rich man, his two daughters at Vassar and himself at a smaller college, were a steady drain on the family resources. Eventually, after waiting years, as it seemed, Mr. Richmond arrived and they both started at once to tell him of their discovery. Wlien he at last un- derstood them he became almost as ex- cited as they were and tried to open the box with the keys on his ring, but this was impossible as none of the new fashioned keys would fit the old fash- ioned lock. He then remembered an old key ring and keys that had belong- ed to his grandfather and sent Jack for them. They were in the case of old family relics and heirlooms and he soon returned with them. The last key on the ring opened the box and before the wondering eyes of the boys the contents were displayed. In the first of three compartments was a large bag of Span- ish gold money, in the second was a package which contained all the miss- ing heirlooms, and in the third a bag of silver. The money when taken to an expert to be valued proved to be worth much more than what old Randolph Richmond had thought and the heir-