“Why, the box is silver!” thought Jo Ann, amazed, “He’s had it polished till it’s beautiful.”
Señor Rodriguez was all lawyer now—dignified and formal. “My dear young ladies, I haf de honor of congratulate you on de wonderful discovery you haf made,” he began in his broken English, bowing to each of the girls. “Dese are ver’ valuable papers which you haf found—ver’ valuable to de city, ver’ valuable to de church and to my family,” he added, smiling.
The girls smiled back happily. They didn’t understand all that he was talking about or why they should receive so much praise, but evidently their discovery was more important than they had realized.
He then went on to explain how, after searching through the archives of the city, studying old records, and checking names and dates, he felt that he could give some authentic information about the papers.
They were records dating before 1846 of some of the oldest most prominent families of the city. Several of the older inhabitants with whom he had talked remembered having heard their parents tell of the exciting times when the city had been besieged by the American forces under General Zachary Taylor. As soon as they had realized they could hold out no longer against the Americans, they had hidden their most valuable possessions, of which only a small part had ever been recovered. Tales of vast treasures hidden under the city had been handed down from generation to generation, but few of them seemed to have any foundation.
“Dis General Guerrero whose name you see on dis paper,” continued the Señor, picking up one of the papers, “was de fadder of my esteemed gran’fadder. Dey are de records of de families of Guerrero and Rodriguez before 1846. Finding dem will clear de titles to some ver’ valuable property which belong to my family.”
“Oh, señor, I’m so glad!” exclaimed Florence.
“We are, too, aren’t we, Peggy?” added Jo Ann.
The Señor went on to say that when he showed the jewels and papers to his grandmother, she recalled a story told to her in her childhood by her mother just before she died. According to this story her husband, General Guerrero, at the time of the siege, had given her some important papers which he had told her to guard above everything. When the general had realized that the city could no longer hold out, he had sent a messenger with a hastily written note telling her to send those valuable papers and their jewels to him by this man. She had reluctantly handed the papers and jewels to the messenger, but that was the last she had ever heard or seen of them. As the general had been killed that same day, she supposed the things had been either lost or stolen. For that reason no effort was ever made to recover them.
“And dese are de papers dat were lost,” finished the Señor. “How ver’ fortunate it is dat you find dem!”