Friends and cousins

by Abbie Farwell Brown

With this chest under his cloak he got into the boat, and his mate, One-Eyed Pete, rowed him away. The fog was so thick that they soon lost sight of the other boat. A storm was rising; the wind blew so loud and the waves roared so terribly that they could not hear any answer to their calls. They had to be very careful of the rocks and reefs on which the waves broke fiercely, and they rowed on and on for hours before they found a place where they could land.

But at last they came to a safer shore, with an inlet and a smooth beach. They landed, and soon discovered that this was a very little desert island.

“This will be just the place to bury the treasure,” said Captain Kidd. “Let us do so before we meet any one who may try to take it from us.”

“Right, Captain,” growled One-Eyed Pete.

So they dug a hole in the ground and buried the treasure, heaping a little mound over it. They knew that they should remember the spot, because there was close beside it a great big rock split open and lying in two pieces side by side, like a huge book spread flat upon its back.

Captain Kidd wrote down in his note-book a description of the place, and, as well as he knew, how they had come there. He drew besides a picture of the fog as a sample, so that he should recognize it again. For he said,—“I never saw such fog before, in all my life!” Which proves that all this must have happened close by where we are now.

Then One-Eyed Pete said,—“Cap’n, a terrible storm is coming on, and I think this here island is a poor place to be on; for the waves will roll right over it. Let’s row to the mainland, which can’t be far away.”

So they rowed away again, and after a long time spent in trying to find a landing-place, they came to a harbor and a village. They pretended that they were shipwrecked sailors, so the good people took them in and gave them food. What would they have thought had they known it was the wicked Captain Kidd who was visiting them!

The storm lasted several days, but when it was over Captain Kidd said “good-by” politely, and with One-Eyed Pete went out on the first fishing-boat that left the harbor. Nobody discovered who they were. They exchanged passage into the first vessel they met, and were soon far over the seas.

After that Captain Kidd lived to have many wild adventures, and he forgot all about his treasure in the little iron-bound box on the desert Island. No one ever heard of the other pirates, who must have been drowned in the storm that night. The pirate ship went to pieces, and some bits of the treasure were washed ashore with its timbers, and the fishermen’s children found them on the beach. But it is not known that any one ever found the captain’s jewels, and I dare say the box is there to this day. Just think, if only one could find it!