On Board the Raft,
Tuesday Noon.
My Beloved Son:
We have now been on this raft two days, and I feel that my end is drawing near, although my companions will doubtless escape. But I have received a terrible blow on the head, and my sufferings at times are frightful; therefore I know I am not long for this world.
Oh, that I might see you again, my son! That I might be spared to reach you, and to put into your hand the power to make you the wealthy man I should have been had I lived. But no; it could not be. Fortune has at last come to the Tarrs, but I shall not share it; your uncle Anson was not benefited by it, and death will overtake me soon, too. But you, my son, I pray may regain the fortune which I have hidden aboard the brig.
We committed a grave error in leaving the wreck; I know that now. The hull of the Silver Swan was uninjured, and she may outlast many gales. I shall put these papers into Caleb Wetherbee’s hands ere I am called, and he, I know, will help you to regain the fortune which first belonged to Anson. Be guided by him, and trust him fully.
The letter from your uncle will explain all about the diamonds, and how he came in possession of them. I dared not take the gems with me from the brig, for Leroyd knew about them, or suspected their presence, and he would have killed us all for them, I fear.
But they are hidden in the steel lined closet—the one I showed you in the cabin. Caleb knows where it is. Go to the reef at once and get the jewels, before some one else gets there. There are diamonds enough to make you fabulously rich, if Anson appraised them rightly.
I am so weak that I cannot write longer.
These will probably be my last words on earth to you, my son. Live uprightly; fear God; and hold sacred your mother’s memory. God bless you, my boy! Farewell!
Your loving father,
Horace Tarr.