" I am not joking. I swear to you I am going down that hole to-night. If you don't choose to accompany me, I'll go alone."

"For God's sake, don't go, Woody. The parlor door is locked; you'll wake up the whole house, and—"

In vain I endeavored to dissuade him.

" Sam, I must go."

There was something in the sound of his voice that guaranteed his earnestness. Determined to accompany him, happen what might, foolish as the undertaking was, I still tried to restrain him.

" Woody, what on earth is the use of going ? What do you expect to gain by it ?"

" Hush ! Speak lower. I will tell you. You recollect the tenor of our conversation this evening, just before the accident occurred? Well, I believe the whole thing was providential. Nothing happens by chance. Our days of poverty are over. There's money in that hole."

At the word " money," I began to rise.

"I know there is money there," he continued, "although I made no examination. I was stunned by the fall, and after I had regained consciousness, was too much alarmed to care for anything butmy personal safety. I tell you, Sam, something's bound to come out of this. I feel it."

I was already half dressed.

" How deep is the hole ?" I asked.

"Not more than ten or twelve feet."

"Not more than that? That's nothing. I'll go down with you. Remember, you musn't wear your shoes this time."

" All right. Come ahead !"

We crept noiselessly down stairs, holding our breath, walking very slowly, and with the utmost caution. No one heard us. Contrary to my expectation, the parlor door was unlocked; the room was just as the crowd had left it — carpet ripped open, chairs set disorderly to the walls, the rope lying on the floor.

The hole looked gloomy and forbidding enough. A cold, grave-like air seemed to well up from it.

"Woody," said I, "there may be noxious gases

down there. You had better not venture down again. Money is valuable, but not to a dead man."

" Pooh ! why didn't the gases kill me when I was down there a little while ago ?"

" At any rate it will do no harm to let the candle down. Carbonic acid gas will put it out, you know, if there is any down there."

" Well, I don't care. But I know there is nothing to fear."

With the aid of the rope, I dropped the candle to the very bottom, no great distance, as Woody had said. It burned somewhat dimly at first, but soon brightened up again. There was then no lack of oxygen — Woody might venture with safety.

He caught the rope between his hands, and I gently eased him down.

" Now let down the candle."

I was left in darkness. A feeble light came up from the hole, revealing portions of my friend's form as he turned groping about for the hidden treasure, which i myself, with visionary hope, already counted on his finding.

" See anything ?" I inquired, bending far over the gloomy depth.

" No ; it's nothing but an infernal old well. See plenty of old fence rails and rubbish. Stop! hush! I've found the loadstone. By Jupiter ! here is something; I thought I pouldn't be mistaken."

He commenced busily to pull at something, while I vainly strained my eyes to make out what he was after. This proceeding lasted a long time — he work-

.ing manfully, and I straining my eyes to discover the object he was tugging at. It seemed he would never have done. I was on thorns of excitement.

"What is it? what is it?" I asked impatiently. " Can't you get it up ?"

He continued to pull and strain, resting a little from time to time, and then, blowing and puffing, again continuing the arduous labor. At last, to my infinite relief, he rose from his stooping posture and straightened himself up with a satisfactory " ah !"

" Well, well," said I, eagerly.

Still no answer. He remained silent for fully five minutes ; to me, standing above, in a fever of curiosity, it seemed an age.

" Pull me up, pull me up," he at length said, in a tone partly of indifference and partly cheerful. I complied instantly, and he was no sooner landed upon the parlor floor than I again began :

"Not a word for your life. If anybody should overhear us, the whole thing will be ruined."

He drew himself up, as he spoke, to his full stature, and looked me exultingly in the eye.

" Well, for heaven's sake go on," I demanded. " What did you find ? I am dying with impatience."

" You know the loadstone ?"

" Yes, yes— what about it ?"

" Well, the shoes are sticking fast to it, and so is that steel pen of yours."

" Aha I I thought so. Go on, go on."

" But the loadstone is no loadstone at all."

" The deuce ! Not a loadstone ?"

" No ; but — " and here he drew me close besidehim, and whispered in accents of triumph, which I can never forget, "no, it's not a loadstone, but it is something better — it's an IKON CHEST !"

"An iron chest ?"

" Yes, sir. I knew I couldn't have fallen into that hole for nothing. But stay, this conversation had. better be carried on away from the house ; some onemight hear us ; walls have ears."

" What ! Go away and leave the chest ?"

" The best possible, the only way to secure it. We can't be too cautious and circumspect. Come."

I followed him out to some oak trees near the carriage house, and about twenty yards from the dwelling. We trod softly as panthers, cursing inwardly the leaves which would crackle a little under our feet, although they were softened by the rain which, had been falling gently during the last hour.

Ensconced behind the o.aks, he continued :

" Yes, it is an iron chest, and no mistake. It hasbecome powerfully magnetized in some way, and that accounts for the shoes and pen. I tried my best to pull the shoes — "

" Curse the shoes !" I broke in. " What's in the chest ? Did you get into it ? Was it locked ? "

" Yes, it was locked fast; but the rust had eaten a small hole through the top of it, and I distinctly saw the gleam of GOLD !"

A shudder ran over me, as he pronounced the word "gold" in a deep, emphatic voice.

" I saw the gold," he went on, " and what is more, I felt it. I put my finger into the hole made by the rust, and felt about. The chest is filled with broad pieces, too broad to get through the hole, of solid gold. — Spanish doubloons, I doubt not. How I longed to get some of them out."

" Say no more, say no more !" I exclaimed in too loud a tone. " Say no more. We were fools for leaving the chest. We must have it up immediately, immediately," and I started towards the parlor.

"Hold!" said Woody. "Do you think I would ever have left the chest if it could have been gotten out so easily ? I tell you it is an immense chest ; it weighs at least a thousand pounds. There must be half a million dollars in it — probably a million."

At this announcement an ague of excitement seized me. Woody, too, was trembling. The stake was enormous. He continued :

" It was for this purpose I called you out here — to concert measures how we may secure the prize without detection. It is impossible for us, unaided, to get the chest out, and to-morrow half the county will go into that hole."

" What shall we do, what can we do ?" I cried, wringing my hands in an agony of fear, lest, after all, we should lose this glorious fortune.

Woody answered :

" One of two things must be done — either we must

fill up the hole, so that no one shall be able to find

the chest, or we must announce the discovery and claim it."

" But," I replied, u it is impossible to cover it up so as to leave no traces of our work. Country people are proverbially curious, and they will dig to the centre of the earth if to-morrow they find the dirt loose and recently placed there. And if you make known the discovery, the chest and all its contents will belong to Mr. Stinson, or rather to the gentleman of whom he rents the land. If Mr. Stinson owned the place, I should urge you at once to go and tell him ; he is a whole-souled old fellow, and would give us fully half of the gold. But the real owner of the place is prodigiously close — even miserly ; all we could expect of him would be a beggarly hundred dollars or so."

" That's a fact," said Woody. " It's just our luck — we are the most accursed, the most unlucky fellows on earth."

" But we must do something," 1 urged. " Day is not far distant, and then the whole affair will be knocked in the head. Is there no way of keeping this thing a secret for a day or two at least, until we can devise some way of securing the prize ? What shall we do, what shall we do ?" I was almost crying with anger and vexation. To be choused out of our wealth just the moment we obtained it, was too bad, too bad. It was enough to make the d — 1 himself cry.

Mr. Woodbury Mosby burst into a laugh, which I interpreted as fiendish. I expected next to hear him

propose to burn down the house and everybody in it. He continued to laugh. He laid down under the oaks and laughed, rolled among the leaves and laughed.

" Evidently hysterical," I said to myself. " Poor fellow ! his nerves are weaker than mine. But this is enough to unman anybody. Yet we are losing time, — precious time. Stop, Woody ! stop !" said I, aloud, " for mercy's sake stop laughing and get up. Something must be done, and quickly. Do get up."

He laughed still more wildly. I became alarmed.

" Woody, if you can't stop laughing, I shall have to call Dr. Arthur. You will break a blood vessel if you go on in that way."

This seemed to make him infinitely worse. He no longer laughed — his breath was gone ; but his frame shook in frightful convulsions.

" Curse the hole, curse the chest, the gold, everything! The fellow is dying!" and I rushed off to awaken the doctor.

Woody called me back in a feeble voice. I returned.

that we were rapidly losing the only chance we would ever have of securing it. Deep as was my interest in ray friend, it was not deep enough to hide my avarice. I had been poor, we both had been poor, and suffered so much because of our poverty, it was a sin to have our noble fortune torn from us ere yet we had enjoyed the first dollar of it. Thus friendship and avarice strove in my breast. But as his consciousness returned, Woody commenced laughing again, and I once more commenced to chafe his temples, doubting whether it would or would not be best to leave hirn there in the rain while I called the doctor. Cursing heartily our evil destiny, I continued to rub his temples, and to put off