OCR Text |
Show II I 1 NERO'S BARGE I.j. .j. Barton Cortlce, a young Ameii- 4-j- can of Scotch-Irish descent, queer- v ly pitted wlli nn uncommon men- fr tallty, possesses the unusual and uncanny power Of vividly recalling i memories of his Kgo pnssed In ! formor rolncarnntlons, centuries -I-apart. Including: many strange ad- 2 4 ' venture.-! by flood and fl"ld, some of Y them connected with long-foryot-.- ten treasure hoards, concerning which, by virtue of bin unique f girt, he Is able to Instance di.-llnilc da leu and exact localities. AL the ! time when these connected narra- lives began, Cortlro happens to be I 4- in London, prnctlonlly penniless, -I although potentially ho commando v great wealth. IIo Ifi reaching out -I-r for some ono of means and of In- ' 4- tegrlty who will evince, cnoush -I- r faith In his strange story to finance him in a. crltlcnt and actual test. V Such nn "angel" appears in the person of Lord Wostbury Wayne. v marquis of Scarsdnle, a young peer of great wealth, who la oo- 1- ccntrlcjilly fond of bizarre ndven- v turr-. Ri.-tta Cortlce, Barton's sis- ter, dependent upon him, believes !-I- implicit ly in her brother, having 4 acted ns hi3 nmnnnonyls In set- ! r tine down certain of his recoil ec- tlon;;. Sho nnd Rcarsdalo eventually -I- "make a matcli of It." as do Bar- v h ton Cortlce nud the Lady Blanche, r J- sister of Lord Wnyrie. This uric-j- Innl quartette, are reinforced by John Dare, an American nowspa- ! r per man, who acts as narrator, and r Malcolm Forbes, a British mining i engineer, and others. After some -. Mirprlslng adventures, connected y I- with a forgotten gold mine in the. 4- Andes of Peru, some hidden Jewma v In France, the lost treasure of I- King John, an ancient pearl llsh-V llsh-V ery In the Sulu sea. the young I- adventurer Is Induced to reveal ! the mystcr- of an old Scotch fam- j ilv known as tho Balmano Sue- v cession, after which John Dare 4-telle 4-telle us of Barton Cortlco as a y s Roman soldier. i i" I "How does it foci to revisit the , ylimpses: of the moou, as Shakespeare puts it?" I inquired ol! Barton Cor-tice. Cor-tice. H was I he early winter following upon our return from the east, ana we irero strolling down Bond street, on our way from Hie jeweler's where ho hud been In see about netting sonic of the pearls from Half -Moou island. Since that memorable expedition there had been "nothing doing'' by way of loincaruation reminiscences, and i opined thnt, it was about time for Barton Bar-ton to give us another den I out of his wonderful lio" of tricks. Ho laughed ami, bowed to some passing acquaintances before answer-mg answer-mg my query. Then: l f'Brcttv much as you yourself would feel. 1 supposn, on "returning to "our boyhood homo only more so." "We weru held up for a few moments by a street blockade, then crossed and entered tho park. When we wore in its comparative quiet, fori ice resumed: re-sumed: "Everything in different, of course, vof. much remains tho same, just; ns Vou might find that, whilo the old Main street; is .still there, a now hotel and opera-house hnvi been built, to get her with several churches, perhaps, and a modern library. The people, too, have chirked np a bitj and they've put in trollevs and electric lights. Yet. it's the satnn old place-, and you could find your way around on the darkest night.'" "That's all true, I guess," I mado answer, -"yet not exactly -what T meant. 1 referred inoro patioularly to .your own mental attitude." "We'll," ho answered, meditatively, "my tYoling is usually one of curioun detachment; 1 recognize local details and remember my former association therowith, yet you inust keep in mind that sometimes many centuries nay eons may have elapsed between visits." I nodded undcrstandingly T pride myself on being a good listener and ho went on: "In all our experiments thus far, we or I have only revisited isolated snots, like that mine in tho Andes, or the Valmoml chateau, or Bonvcnno castle. What should you say lo a more leugthv pilgrimage just, you nnd J?" "For instance?" T queried. "Well, I'll tell you whnti's in my mind. Once upon -it time T was a Bo-man Bo-man soldier don't start I've- informed in-formed you 1 pla3ed many parts and iu tho course of that martial enisodo I must have marched over a considerable consider-able part of Italy; 1 witnessed wonderful won-derful and memorable sights, and was familiar with some localities that arc uow historic. Would you bo . astonished aston-ished if I told you that. beheld the burning of Koine, also the destruction of llerculnneum and Pompeii?"' T gasped. (,'ortiee laughed. "Difil-cult "Difil-cult to believe, isn't it? and yet I'm not joking. Oh. i could tell" you a story stranger than that!" "Well, the ' Wandering .lew' no doubt really existed in men's minds as embodying i lie truth of that idea of which I am the living proof." There was no gainsaying this provided pro-vided one admitted tho" basic fact of H'inearnation and Conine himself V.'.'IS. as he snirl. ;i livinir xA livnol liin.r proof that it was possible to reinem"-' uer one's previous lives on enrlh. There were millions of Roman soldiers sol-diers why should he not have been one of them? "What J really started to suv was this," ho went on. "There's a certain stretch of Italian soil which I can reproduce, re-produce, menially more vividlv than anything else. I've a great curiosity to go ovor the ground leisurely, perhaps per-haps halting here and there, as 'in the old days, peopling those classic scenes and noting the changes wrougat bv nine. Will you go along just us two ! There may he some adventures; feel very certain thai I could settle sonic mooted points of historv. '' Would I go along? As I' have said elsewhere. I had a roving commission as correspondent for mv paper; I had never visited Italy, neither had Cor-tic-e during his present spun on earth, and I rather welcomed the chance 'to see how and wherein we should differ dif-fer in our impressions. So J. promptlv said yes. Boforc we separated we had agreed to meet in Paris ten davs later. Our objective point was Koine, and from there 1 found Hint Cortice was bent on following one of his old inarching inarch-ing routes when he was numbered among the Emperor Xero's legiouaries. The way led from the Eternal Citv. northward through the towns of Roncig-lioue, Roncig-lioue, Yiterbo. and Motitofinscoiic to the banks of Logo di Bolsona. Xaturallv we liugered awhile in Kome itself, and through Corlice's eves I saw the ancient city reconstructed in a way that would have made some of the auti quarians gasp with amaze- mcnt. Aud speakin.7 of these same antiquarians, it was through one of them that we had the adventure giving giv-ing title lo this chapter. After leaving Jiomo wo followed in the mam one of these magnificent paved highways which still stand as monuments to the ancient road-build-j ers, bordered part of the wav by the rums of an eqnallv venerable 'aque-i 'aque-i duct. Cortice was full of his theme hero they had camped; here, bv Xoro's or-der. or-der. they killed a, few score Chris-(lians; Chris-(lians; on another stretch of road Cor-1 Cor-1 lice's own company had guarded the iroval lit ter. and so on. It was im-possiblp im-possiblp to resist the belief that the man had roally been thcro and had done those things. 13ut 1 was to have more convincing proof if proof were needed. At the hotel in Yiterbo we chanced lo meet a certain Count; Rocco Mario an Italian of the Italians, a man of old family, .independently wealthy, a member of the upper house of parliament, parlia-ment, and an archaeologist of reptile. Wo had foregathered at Hie table-d table-d hole, and aflcrwanl the three of us adjourned, Jo the glase-roofed garden for our coffee, anil cigars. The conversation conver-sation turned upon the historical remains re-mains of the count rv. and Mario informed in-formed us that he was even then on his way to an old villa wlm-h he owned on the shores of Lake Bolsena, Have J said thai Cortice could speak Italian fluently' Tin: count; alto spoke I Knglish. bni us 1 knew no language I save my own they very obliglnglv ear-.ried ear-.ried on their conversation in ' that tongue, i 'on nt Hoop, had mentioned the fact that his villa was verv old. indeed, he believed, one wing "dated from the Christian era itself. Then, in proof thereof lu instanced the fact thai the Kmperor Nero had once made it. hia residence for a few days while :5KjJ . 3772 perfectly Sd2?.e'3' I a magnificent water-pageant was carried car-ried out on the bosom of Hie lake at fabulous expense. We were sitting in semi-gloo'ni, for the garden was only dimly lighted, and L was drowsing over my cigar when my cars opened receptively as Cortice remarked quietly: "Yes that was in the year 00, while Itoine was being rebuilt after the fire, which, by Hie way, Nero had no more to do with than you, my dear count. Also, while the land and water festivities festivi-ties were at their height, a terrible catastrophe occurred the sinking or capsizing of a great floating island on which was built the royal booth, whero scores of Roman patricians were drowned with all their jewels and great quantities of gold and silver table ornaments orna-ments dishes, goblets, flagons and the like. Xero himself escaped death only by a miracle. ? ' The count's astonishment was almost too much for his politeness. "Pardon me," he remarked frhuve.ly, "your facts are in the main accurate enough, yet, I. am amazed that a foreigner for-eigner an American should be so minutely min-utely informed. That remark, now, of yours about Nero being guiltless of th.e charge of burniug of Kome; our historians his-torians would be glad to have that point settled oue way or tho other. 1 have always inclined to discredit the charge myself, but few or no trustworthy accounts ac-counts have come down to us from eye witnesses1. " , Cort ice's face was in shadow, but I recognized his peculiar little - chuckle when about to spring some surprise born of his ancient knowledge. " Well," he drawled, "1 can give you my personal recollections, for 1 happened hap-pened to be there.' '' Poor old Mario he was about sixty years of age removed his hat and wiped the perspiration from his forehead, fore-head, at the same time moving back his chair as though he were in the company com-pany of a madman. Cortice divined his thought and laughed aloud as he flicked the ash from his long, black cigar. . ''Don't be alarmed, signor," he said qniellv. "I'm perfectly sane, and so is my friend here." Tln'n turning to me. he said: "Tell him the truth, Dare." Thus appealed to, in a fow concise sentences I made the count, acquainted with Cort ice's strange story, adducing for proof the several practical instances in which he had shown that his powers pow-ers were based, as he claimed, on actual remembrance. Of course, Count Mario was loo well-read well-read to be unfamiliar with the lit era-lure era-lure of the Oriental faith in reuicarna-Hon, reuicarna-Hon, but what staggered him was the fact of his billing face-to-faco ami listening list-ening to a man who had. as he expressed ex-pressed it, "come, back." "'It is marvelous, stupendous!'' hu exclaimed, "and pardon nic almost beyond belief. Yet, why not?"' "Oh, you're not I he first Doubting Thoninf I've mei," laughed ('orticc. "Listen; let me tell you s-onlething. Clujck my statements, if I hey seem to conflict with your own historical knowledge. knowl-edge. Tn the year 0(5. "lifter the greatest great-est conflagration which the world had probablv then seen, Xoro set to work to rebuild his capital on a scale of unparalleled un-paralleled magnificence and munificence. munifi-cence. At the same lime he inslitutec. vast public spectacles, gladiatorial games, and prodigal distributions of grain and money. Partly because the new sect of f'hrislinns had been chargnd with being incendiaries, partly to provide pro-vide human victims for Hie arena, and partly to divert- attention from his own excesses, he slew them by thousands, thou-sands, inventing new and unhoard-of tortures. In the gardens of the Villa Yalentan, on the shores of Lake Uol--ena, he enused them to be burnt as living torches., hoisted on poIph and swathed in tar. In fact, these blazing human forms served to light (he gardens gar-dens dining one of his oTgic.s. "Among I he many magnificent de vices for charming the jnded senses of the voluptuary was that of a floating float-ing garden. This wan built, on a hugo raft or barge, some distance off shore On it wore planted whole groves ol! trees and flowering plants; tents and bowers were erected, lavishly decorated, deco-rated, and brilliantly illuminated. A huge banquet was served at, which I ho utmost license prevailed, the guests including in-cluding the fairest women and tho bravest men of Ronie. At the height of the festivities something went, wrong with the raft probably it was overloaded or sprung a lenk. Panic ensued, and in thoir drunken condition and the darkness the waters of the I Inko engulfed scores of the revelers, with all their rich equipage. "1. was among I ho soldiers on guard, and escaped by swimming ashore, the shrieks of the drowning ones ringing in 1113' oars. Xcro liimsolt. wilh a few of his courtiers and favorites, were dragged into boats and rowed ashoro. The waters of Lnke llolsena to I his day conceal Hie very interesting relics lost with Xero's barge." "It is marvelous!" whispered the count. Apparently his faith had been won, for lii next remark took a new shape: ""What a boon to historv it would be if those relics could be recovered, Mr. Cortice! ' ' "Well, why nol?" oueried Barton, casilv. "The lake is deep, and who knows where to search?" objected Mario. "Proof! Merely a question of expense. ex-pense. " returned Cortice . "I can guide you lo the exact spot. Why, signor," the barge lies within a few hundred 3"ards of your own gardens!" "What would you do dredge the I Jit I IU1II . "That. .might do as a last resort, but there is a betlijr way get an expert diver from vour government dockyard." dock-yard." "Oh. you Americans," exclaimed Count; Mario. "And would you really help me in this. Mr. Cortice? To be tho savior of such priceless relics I would give ton of in' remaining vcars of life." "You've only to say the word," said Cortice. aud telogrunli or a diver wilh the necessary equipment this very night. Gadf 1 wish wo could use a diving bell! I'd go down iu her myself." my-self." Aud so we had stumbled upon another an-other surprising adventure. Before sleeping that night dispatches nud letters let-ters were sent to the commandant at Civita Vccchia requesting that a deep-water deep-water diver be instructed to report, at the Villa Yalentan without delay. Xcxl dav we took up our route for Couut Mario's country house. Cortico astonishing aston-ishing ami amusing us on the way by his reminiscent comments aucnt tho road and tho scenery. For myself, . saw only one little lion in tho way. "Does not Hie Italian government i jealously guard all antiquarian investigations inves-tigations and finds of this nature?" I inquired of Mario. "Eccol" hu oxcl.iimed with a snap of his fingers. " 'Tis truo. and rightly, but my position and tho fact that the eslato of Valcnt.au. bordering on the lake, is mine, makes tho necessary permission per-mission a mere formality. But 1 shall have lo account for whatever is recovered." re-covered." While we were waiting for tho diver and his gear to arrive, we made use of the interval to embark on the lake, iu order thai Cortice might locate the spot where Nero's barge went down The villa didn't, interest him most of it. he remarked carelessly, had boon built since his day, and anywav the camp of the guard of legionnrics liad. been some: distance away. The exact spot ho pointed out. It was now n olive orchard, but Count Roreo vowed lie would have it, plowed over in search of relics, military weapons Jiinl equipment. Taking a boat, he rowed out snino distance from the shore, Curtice looking Njisterii and around to get his bearings. We had brought with iia at his suggestion sugges-tion a. big stone, twenty fathoms or so iff stout, line, and an empty Wine-keg, Wine-keg, the use of which was short b- to appear. j "Vou must bear in mind," ho said.' to us. while scanning tho surround i ings, "that the floating garden was not anchored, but was towed hither I nnd yon by slaves in galleys. Consequently, Conse-quently, wn have to allow a fairly wide radius, but T believe I can strike Hie spot, within a hundred vardti. Now! Hold the boat here. So!'' While ho spoko he had knotted one: end of the .line to tlffc stone there wns no anchor at hand and slowly paid it out, over the side. The line ran through his lingers for fifty or sixty feel, then stopped. "Now tho keg'" lie commanded, around which we whipped uevoral turns of rone and o.ns(. it adrift. "There," said the young seer, "that r -: '-'.- will serve as a mark-buoy for our friend the diver. 1 don't believe I'm fifty feel out of the way." 1 think this was the final clincher to Mario's belief. The inatter-nf-fact coolness displayed by Barton scorned to shatter his last containing doubts. I hit all he could utlcr was little volleys vol-leys of: "Diablo! 'Tis marvelous! Oh, you Americans!" ns though the fact of his nationality had anything to do with Barton's peculiar gift. It was the fourth day before the diver arrived with two helpers and his traps pumps, hoisting apparatus, and diving gear. lie provod lo bo a Franco-Italian named Jean Cospetto. and informed ns that he had frequently frequent-ly worked on sunken wrecks and treasure ;hips. It was evening when he arrived, and too lalo for any at-tonipl at-tonipl Hint night. But we spent the interval before morning iu explaining what was to be done. "It was of a very simplencss," Cos petto declared. "Unless the mud hnd covered everything many feet deep, no dredge would be required. Also of a certainly the wooden framework of Hie barge or craft would have probably disappeared, but anything of gold or silver or bronze would be unharniod." 1 don't believe Count Mario slept a wink that night, but T can affirm that Cortice put in a good seven hours. However, we were all about soon after dawn, onlv to find that Cospetto and his men were ahead of us. They had requisitioned two stout punts for transporting wine and olives to Montefiascone; these they had - Li-lashed Li-lashed together and stretched some stout planks across for a staging to hold the air-pumps, hoist ing-slings, etc., and for tho diver's convenience in descending. Cospetto put on most of his rubber diving dress in the villn, all save tho great copper helmet. Then we rowed him out to tho float, which had been anchored over our floating keg. Tho first thing he did was to sound for depth, finding it ten fathoms sixty six-ty feet saying it was about what he expected, lie lost no time in getting ready for the descent; the helmet wns screwed on, breast, and back plates adjusted, ad-justed, and the air-hose and life-line attached. The instant the visor was closed tho air-pumps set up their steady whine, fospctto slopped on the rungs of a short ladder hung over the side, nnd slowly disappeared beneath the blue waters of Lngo di Bolsona, a strenm of tiny fonm bells marking his progrrsH a ho made his way over the bottom, fimilly becoming "stationary about a dozen yards to the right of where wo and our buoy lay. It goes without saying that we were all excited and on tho qui vivc Count Mnrio and Cortice. especially. Booking backward, I enn sny for myself that I seemed to have no doubt that tho divor would prove tho truth of the story abouL Xero's barge. " Well, after staying under water about half an hour, the bubbles began coming com-ing our way again, and shortly thereafter there-after the huge round headpiece of Cospetto Cos-petto rose above the water nnd ho clambered on the rail. But before his helmet was unscrewed he hold out two small, dnrk objects to the count, who seized thorn, all dripping with water and slimo as they were, and began to rub them with his immaculate handkerchief. handker-chief. Wo crowded round to look; one was an exquisite statuetto of a female fig-guc, fig-guc, about, a foot high, the other a small hand mirror, originally a disk of polished pol-ished silver. The count promptly shook hands with both of us indeed, 1 believe be-lieve he would have embraced and kissed us hnd we permitted. Xo sooner w:i3 Cospetto 's heluiot off and he had lighted the inevitable cigarette than Mario began to pry him wilh questions ques-tions in fluent and rapid Italian. Tho answers came promptly. Si! Si! Of a great certainty there was something down there the wnter was so dark that ho must have his electric lumps before the spot could be properly explored. The raft, was gnstndos "busted" all save some heavy timbers imbedded in the sand; no. there was no mud; he was going down again after a rest. But first we would shift the staging right over the spot. And so on. "Well, we did as directed, and Cos-petfo Cos-petfo made nnother trip. This time, knowing the ground, he had better fisherman's luck, for he signalled for an iron bucket to be lowered. This he sent up filled wjth various treas uros, all niotal, of course, and all snd-ly snd-ly tarnished and discolored, such as three drinking cups, a large flagon, two flower vases, a couple of oval plates, and auother statuette. Upon coming up for the second timo Cospetto explained that ho had found this lot in tho interstices of the four or five heavy beams which were imbedded im-bedded in the sand. Doubtless there were a great many othor articles sunk out of sight, but io get Ihese it would bo necessary to hoist tho timbers out of the way and then dredge over the area. "It shall be done of a surety!" averred Hie count. "'There must be a wealth of smaller articles coins, medals, jeweled hair-pins, brooches, rings, bracelets, daggers, and so forth!" Ho would establish a museum in the Villa Valentan! "He would name the collodion after his "wonderful young friend. Cortice." Meantime, "his wonderful young friend, Cortice." was formulatiug a ill fir id" rt J W i Itt41 TM' ., a' JSN " C ?!J fit lSh iit lending tho air-hose, ana me, iiio-iino -3P! and watching tho track of air-bnbblcs djtetr most oloselv. Mario and mynelt ;mst S i' stood around, both horribly nervous, for I knew enough about diving to realize jjJ. that for a tyro to go down into sixty ! affi foot of water was no joke; the pressure- t .a-A- even at that dopth is quite severe, and $fV Hie slightest mishap might procipitato tfv a catastrophe. i But, nothing untoward occurred ior $ ii perhaps a quarter of an hour; the air- : pumps droned regular and by tho : 'ff: movement of the life lines wo could : see that tho man at the other end was ( jjw,, slowly covering the bottom of tho lake. j if fa Then of a sudden something hap- ? K. ponod. The life lines were twitched j : Cjir and jerked violently and nearly j, Yanked out of Cospetto 's handsnot bv tho prearranged three pulls which WbfCu d'ivnrs used when they want to bo hauled lo tho surface, but a wildly lr- KSfJ' regular motion. srTf!i1'' Cospetto sprang from Ins kneeling 'iglK posture lo his feet and began to haul JTlj!f. in on the bridle, shouting to us to bear .SJi?" a baud and to his helpers to keep the . pumps going steadily. Evidently he 'mfiZ-knew 'mfiZ-knew what had mischanccd to Cor- - IKg-T, ticc below, for between tugs ho gasped '11?- "The signor doubtless stumbled and foil on his back and found himself . tlfll helpless!" , r , "illlj And so it proved, for when we final- .iMlll ly got the nmatenr diver to the sur- JIElI face he came up feet first. When we JiM- had hauled him to the staging and WlSfc unscrewed the helmet it was a very red and disgusted, yet half-laughing WB visage than confronted us. Wftl "1 tripped over thoao confounded 'ffjfciifi beams," lie explained, "and couldn't 'wf5fi get up again, fell on my back!" r m (gj Cospotto and his mates were shak- n ing with laughter now that the danger was over, for once a diver lands on his if back he is practically helpless.. n "But T tell you. count," Barton went ja "jj on, "you'll regret it if you don't have -fftr tho place thoroughly dredged. There's I'alfi a mint of stuff down there! Look 'iMt'fll w.hat. I found!" . . JM B And he held out to view an exquis- jl itely formed golden arm bangle such as tEuIS- the "Roman nobles used to wear. ffllillK "That's my share of the spoils," he will ! announced, "government or no gov , i ( eminent! " u. ffi SI (Next Week "An Aztec Temple.") 1 |