After taking a swig, he continued, “It was off to the Indian Ocean that the Amity sailed. Word is they spent months looking for this promised Arabian treasure. The crew was surely gettin’ agitated at Captain Tew, but he kept ’em to the task and, sure enough, the very day they agreed to turn the Amity’s sails homeward, the promised bounty of gold was before their eyes. The Arabian ship they were after had departed from the Red Sea, loaded with treasure beyond belief. Captain Tew needed only to fire a few warnin’ blasts from his cannon before the treasure ship surrendered its cargo. And oh, the riches to be found,” said Thomas with his eyes twinkling in a dreamy state.
“What was it?” asked Gabriel, trying to snap Thomas back to attention.
“Gabriel, me lad, there was precious jewels of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls; there were fine silks and spices worth thousands of the king’s sterling; and then there was gold and silver — more gold and silver than you can imagine. They took all that plunder back to the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, where they split it up fair and square among the crew. There was so much to go ’round not one man complained of his take. The crew sailed back home to Rhode Island in 1694, and Captain Tew was given a hero’s welcome. He built a big house, enjoyed the company of important people, and raised his family, which included my father, the son of Captain Tew his self.”
Here, Thomas paused and drained the mug then set it firmly back on the table. Gabriel was enthralled by the story, but his question about what happened to the treasure had been left unanswered. “What happened to all the treasure?” he asked timidly.
Thomas sat across the table, looking at Gabriel intently, and did not say a word. Gabriel wondered if maybe he should not have asked that question, since Thomas had a strange look in his eye. Softly, almost whispering, Thomas said, “Gabriel, a keen lad you are, indeed. Most boys your age would have been so lost in my story of pirates and plunder and treasure they would have forgotten all about the question at hand. You, however, are different than most boys your age. You want to know what happened to the treasure, do ye? Your honesty and keenness should be rewarded, so I’ll tell you what happened to Captain Tew’s treasure. But only if you swear a solemn oath on the holy word of God should you find the missin’ treasure, you’ll return half of it to me, it’s rightful owner.”
Mysteriously, Thomas the Terrible produced from his coat pocket a small Bible, which he set before Gabriel. Gabriel sat stunned, questions swirling in his head. Thomas the Terrible carried a Bible? His grandfather’s treasure was missing, and Gabriel might be able to find it? Was the treasure nearby? Why hadn’t Thomas found it? Coming to his senses, he slid his hand over on top of Thomas’ bible and said, “I swear.”
“Very well, now where was we,” said Thomas with a strange lightness in his voice.
“The treasure?” responded Gabriel.
“Gabriel, me lad, if ye be thinkin’ Captain Tew spent it all, then you’re dead wrong. One man could not have spent all that wealth in one lifetime, even if he tried. But riches can be a poison that seeps slowly through a person’s veins until they’ve lost all sense of themselves. Captain Tew, I believe, had a bit of that poison in him, for he began thinkin’ everyone was out to steal his money. He kept most of it locked up in a safe, and he sat by it day and night. Then one day, Captain Tew got the idea that the best thing to do was to use his money to buy up as much land as he could. His thinkin’ was that no one can steal land. Once you own the title to it, it’s yours. But it was this quest for land that led to Captain Tew’s demise.
“Captain Tew heard there was good land for sale north in Massachusetts, so one fine October day, he set out alone on horseback with a good chunk of his gold and silver in a sack. He was goin’ to make a huge land purchase. He insisted on traveling alone so no one would know what he was up to. He was to meet a man in Boston to complete the purchase, so he traveled along this very road that you’re travelin’ on, Gabriel.
“He was not far from Boston when bandits attacked. Captain Tew was not one to give up without a fight. He ran one of the bandits through with his sword and burst into the underbrush of the woods to escape the others. He rode until he came to the Charles River and soon realized he couldn’t cross. So he rode up the river and reached the foot of a steep cliff, where a waterfall came flowing and crashing down up the rocks in front of him. He climbed off his horse and grabbed his bag of gold and silver, slingin’ it o’er his back. The bandits rode up and saw him tryin’ to escape. They fired their muskets at him as he scaled the rocky cliff, but Tew reached the top unharmed.”
“The bag of gold and silver now weighed heavy on his shoulder, and he knew he
