Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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“February 4—The passage leads into the hill back of the house. In it there is a vein of almost pure gold. “February 5 to IS—It is pretty hard to work all day and dig all night. Built an apparatus for smelting ore. It works very well. “February 16 to 25—I feel as if I were going to have an attack of malaria. Out I still keep on working. Put in a system of sewer pipes for ventilation. “March 7—I had to stay in bed all day today. “March 10—The company’s doctor says I cannot live. If I do not recover I hope some worthy person will find this. I have no relatives, and whoever finds it is sole possessor. They are going to start me for the coast tomorrow. (Signed) “John Reynolds.” My fingers trembled and the book dropped to the floor, and for fully five minutes neither of us said a word. “Do you think it is true,” I said finally, to break the silence. “I don’t know,” he answered, brightening somewhat. “The only way we can find out is to investigate.” With the explanation of the plans in the diary they seemed plausible enough. This time both of us went down. I put the lantern down in the middle of the room and looked around. On the side toward the back of the house, there was an opening just about large enough for a person to squeeze through. I thought then that the system of ventilating which Mr. Reynolds had installed was, however, very efficient, for a gust of air hit my face. I got through and Tommy followed. The passage of the other side was larger, being about six feet high and three feet wide. We hurried along, and after going about fifty feet we felt a draft from above. Through a circular opening in the roof I could just see daylight far above me. Every little way wc came to these openings, which comprised the ventillating system. At last the passage widened into a good-sized room. Here there were several large sticks protruding from the wall, and on closer inspection I found that these had been used for torches. I started around the edge of the rooms, inspecting the walls of the room closely. Sure enough, there was a vein of gold about half-an-inch thick. When I saw it at first my knees began to shake, then I felt a chill pass over me, but by degrees I returned to my normal condition. I continued my course around the room and almost bumped into a furnace arrangement, which I imagined was for smelting, and beside it was a big stack of coal, probably taken from one of the engines on the canal. I had seen enough for a while, and we started back. By this time I was feeling faint from the want of food. I stopped to think. It had been a day and a half since we had eaten. We climbed into the room above and then hunted around the neighborhood, and finally found an orange tree. We ate all we wanted and then went back. Then our first difficulty arose. How were we to get the ore away from 83

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had heard the night before, and half a dozen mice darted into their holes. I laughed at Tommy’s mistake. I made a rush for the fireplace, which was just as I had seen it in my dream; jerked the iron rod and up came the board. I heard a gasp behind me, and looked back to see Tommy holding his head, and looking scared to death. He came to all of a sudden, and soon was down on the floor with me. Together we pulled at the board next to the opening. Up it came, and I was about to jump in when Tommy caught my arm. “Look here,” he cried. “We’re not going to take any chances with this until we have inspected it.” I looked around the room. On the opposite side of the room was a little cupboard built in the wall. There was a padlock on the door and the key hung on a nail beside it. There were two shelves. On the top one was an old lantern and a gallon can about half full of oil. On the lower shelf a small crowbar, an ax, and a long knife. I filled the lantern and got back to the opening as soon as possible. Tommy was still on his knees, peering down into the black hole. I lowered the lantern into the blackness, and sure enough, about five feet down was a floor. I tested the boards and they were sound, so I caught hold of both sides and lowered myself down. Tommy lowered the lantern after me. On the floor was the same small box which I had seen in my dream. I picked it up, handed it out to Tommy, crawled out in a hurry, and together we inspected its contents. The box contained a bundle of papers tied with a heavy brown cord. I expected to find them written either in Spanish or French, but to my surprise they were in English, and in a good hand. There were three plans, two letters and a diary. The letters were written by a New York attorney, and were of little interest, but the plans and diary held our attention. On the first flyleaf of the book was written: “John Reynolds, January 22, 1885.” I began to read: “January 23—Arrived in this water-soaked section of the universe. “January 24—Got a position as foreman over a gang of laborers. Have a small shack that evidently has been used before, but still it is comfortable. “January 24— Nothing but rain down here. “January 25—Found a small box back of the house; contained some plans which I have not been able to make out. “January 26—Had to go to Colon on business today. “February 2—Returned today and resumed the study of the drawings. “February 3 —I’ve discovered their meaning. One is a drawing of the house, another is of the house and the surrounding land, and the last is of a passage under the house. I found it by testing everything in the plan of the house. The board to which the iron rods in front of the fireplace are fastened comes up with a little pressure. There is a passage under it which I will explore tomorrow. 82

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there without being suspected? We had no capital to back us and if the government found that we were in possession of this treasure, they would use any means, no matter how unscrupulous, to take it away from us. Then the idea appealed to me that we might do as the others before us had done, smelt the ore ourselves. I know very little of this industry except what I had learned in college chemistry, and that only took in the ways of extracting gold with all modern facilities. I knew that gold was heavier than sand and that by melting the ore the pure gold would sink to the bottom and the sand rise to the top. I began to study the furnace which was erected in the cave. It was made of rough stones plastered thick with clay. Set down in the top was a small pan made of cither iron or steel, so arranged that the fire could reach the sides and bottom. I took it for granted that the pan was to be used to contain the ore. Then over the top of all this a heavy piece of iron was to be placed. From the bottom of the pan through a side of the furnace a small pipe with a spiggot was run for the purpose of drawing off the melted gold. We started work immediately. I dug out a small quantity of the ore, then pounded it as fine as possible and poured it into the pan. We went outside and collected a quantity of dry wood, and with the aid of a little of our extremely precious oil we soon had a roaring fire going. I knew that it would take some time, so we settled back to steady our nerves with a peaceful pipe. I then happened to think that we would need something in which to collect our treasure when the time came. So after firing a plumb line from a piece of cord and a stone, I found the spot exactly below the spiggot. There I made a mold about two inches long, half an inch wide and several inches higher than was necessary to keep the gold from splashing out. When I finished that I turned on the spiggot, and a thin stream flowed out and down into the mold. It flowed but a short time and then stopped, and there we had our first bar of gold, about two inches and a half in length and a half inch thick.. We repeated the process several times and when we had finished for the fourth time we stopped work. The next day we continued our work and at the end of a week we had thirty-one bars in all. The next problem was to dispose of it. We had nothing in which to carry it but we finally got it distributed in our pockets so that although it was heavy, still we could make fairly good time. Neither of us had any money so we closed up the cabin as it was when we found it, and set out on foot. At ?he towns up through the country we sold the bars two or three at a time. From the thirty-one bars we received $8,150. We bought several necessities, including two satchels, a large leather 84