CHAPTER X 



COCOS ^A TALE OF TREASURE 



BY RUTH ROSE 



The stairs creaked dismally, and an elevated 

 train roared by, as I climbed the dimly lighted 

 flights. On each landing a gas-jet wheezed and 

 cast trembling shadows on closed doors, behind 

 which muffled voices could be heard, and I won- 

 dered if any of those huddled lives would make as 

 strange a story as that of the man I was going to 

 see. My mind dwelt on things so incongruous to 

 this setting as surf-pounded beaches, leaning 

 palms, steep jungle hillsides, for I was in search of 

 a sailor who for twenty years had dwelt with his 

 wife on an otherwise uninhabited Pacific island, 

 while he sought for pirates' loot that was buried in 

 that lonely spot more than a century ago. Surely 

 no one can dispute his title to the record for continu- 

 ous, non-stop treasure-seeking. Beaten for the mo- 

 ment, but undiscouraged and with his faith un- 

 shaken, he is now living in New York, remember- 

 ing tree-ferns under a tropical moon, while he 

 watches the flicker of an electric sign behind the 

 pillars of the "L." 



250 



