Aunt Millie used to live in Frankfort, Kentucky with her husband John, who worked in a shoe factory. In 1917 when the United States got in the World War, John Jenkins was called to the front. In 1919 when they returned John didn’t come back so she went to live with the Hardings.

During the evening Jack liked to tell stories about his adventures during the day, they would all set around the fireplace and listen to these stories.

There was a big woods on this farm with a small stream running through it. When his father went to work each day Jack would go with him and stay with him for a little while and then he would go to this stream and fish. One day Jack brought home 5 fish from one afternoon’s fishing so that night they had a big supper.

Chapter 1A: A Day on the Farm from Morning to Night

Every morning at exactly 5:00 a.m., Mr. Harding (we will call him by his first name Frank) would get up and go out to feed his hogs and milk his cows before breakfast. Then about 7:30 he would come in and have his usual breakfast of a half of grapefruit, two cups of coffee and two eggs, sometimes he has toast and jelly but it happened that this morning he didn’t. After breakfast if he had a few things to do around the barn or house he would do them then.

After that was finished he would would go to the field and plow or else plant grain. While Frank was doing that, back at the house Jack was either playing or making something for one of the family. His mother (Tirzah) would always be working about the house. If it was Monday Tirzah would wash and dry the dishes after breakfast then she would begin her washing which is always done on this day. She would get done about 11:0o, then it was time to start getting dinner, which everybody looked forward to and enjoyed very much.

After dinner Frank would go out to the field again and Jack would go with him. Jack would stay there until about 2:30 then he would go off to his favorite place in the stream and fish until his father went back to the house which is about 4:30.

Meanwhile back at the house Tirzah finished up the dishes then she would go in the living room and rest till about 2 o’clock then start the ironing which would take until about 5:00. Then she went out to take care of the chickens then come in and get supper which always tasted good, after a long days work.

When the supper dishes were put away they would all go in the living room and hear Jack’s stories. About 9:30 to 10:00 they would all go up to bed until 5 o’clock the next morning, when Frank got up, Tirzah is always up at 6:15, and Jack is always up by 9 o’clock.

Chapter 2: The First Mystery

One afternoon when Jack was out fishing, the sky in the west began to darken when he saw this he immediately thought of a dust or sand storm. As it came closer he could begin to hear the wind howling. When he did he ran to the house and told the folks they immediately went to the storm cellar.

 The storm lasted about 1 hour, and when they come up every thing was in a mess. The shutters were blown off the windows and at least a half a dozen trees were uprooted.

It took four days and a half to get every thing straightened up, and all the papers picked up off the yard. When Jack was out fishing a couple days later he noticed a small piece of paper that had been blown in the storm, he noticed it had some writing on it, he picked it up and read it. This is what it said:

START, 50 feet from the wind mill on the east walk in a straight line until you come to a big rotted oak tree, turn right and walk 25 feet after 25 feet dig in the ground about 10 feet there you will find an underground passage, turn to your right and go to the fifth door on the left hand side (do not enter any other room) go in the door there you will find two boxes of GOLD bring them to the farm in West Virginia. HURRY

When Jack read this he went home and showed it to his mother, and asked her if he could go and get it. His mother said he could go the next day if he took four other boys with him. That evening after supper he went over to Jim Atkins’ house to see if he could go, he could so then he went over to Tom Peadon’s house, his mother said he couldn’t go in the morning but he could go in the afternoon. Then he went over to Bill and Bob Long’s house, they could only go in the afternoon too.

The next afternoon at 1:30 they were all over at Jack’s house. They took along two picks and five spades.

They went over to the oak tree and turned and walked 25 feet, then they began digging. They digged for about 15 minutes. Bill exclaimed he hit a hollow place and fell in, he wasn’t hurt. The rest of the boys came in and looked around. There were lanterns on both sides of the wall. The boys accidentally turned to the left instead of to the right walked down the hall until they came to the fifth door on the left hand side. They opened it up and saw about 15 skeletons seated around a table with bats flying around the room. Jim immediately shut the door and exclaimed they had turned the wrong direction. They turned around and went the other direction.

When they got back to the opening they began to count the number of doors on the left hand side, when they got to the fifth one they opened the door and went in. There they saw about 50 big boxes and in only two of them was supposed to be the gold. The boys picked out 10 boxes each to look in. About 5 minutes later Tom spoke up that he had found one of the boxes of gold. All the boys left their work to go see the gold that Tom had discovered. When they decided it was real gold they went back to look for the other box.

They hunted and hunted but they couldn’t find that other box of gold. After about 20 minutes more hunting Bob exclaimed that he had only 9 boxes to look in, so there must be another box hid someplace in the room, they looked all around for approximately 15 minutes more then Jim spoke up he had found a box in a big closet in the back of the room. They couldn’t open this one right away because it had a code lock on it. The paper that had the code on it was on top the box, it read: START at zero turn left until you hear a click but do not try to open then. Turn right 5 spaces then left 16 spaces then open.

The boys did this, when the box was opened, sure enough there was the gold. The two boxes were so heavy that it took two boys to carry one box. The four heaviest boys which were Tom, Jim, Bob and Jack carried the boxes. Bill didn’t weigh as much as the other boys he weighed only 89 pounds. Tom and Jack carried one box and Jim and Bob the other. Bill went on ahead to help the other boys get the boxes up out of the secret passage way. When