[Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: Avery Guilford Wallys' Idea of the Heroine.] [Illustration: Title page] The TREASVRE on the BEACH _by_ STREET & FINNEY THE SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILWAY Passenger Department PORTSMOUTH VA Copyright, 1906, by STREET & FINNEY New York Published for the Passenger Department Seaboard Air Line Railway, Portsmouth, Va. The TREASVRE on the BEACH He was always a queer old codger--my Great Uncle Abner. I had never laid eyes on him myself, but his eccentricities were tradition to me, and when I thought of him at all, it was as a half-cracked old fellow living alone in a shack, on a sandy key, somewhere off the coast of Florida. Naturally one doesn't get close-range impressions of uncles of this sort, especially if one's own life runs in very different channels, and if one has enough money to get along on, and one's "sandy-key-uncle" is not thought to have much of this world's goods. On the morning that Uncle Abner's letter came I had gone downstairs to breakfast feeling rather beastly. I saw the large legal-looking envelope beside my plate, but, hardly having an appetite for eggs and coffee, I naturally felt no enthusiasm for mail. Drinking my coffee, I observed that the envelope was bulky--the sort of envelope that might contain specifications for a breach of promise suit. After a few sips of coffee I found the energy to open it. Dear Sir:--You will find enclosed herewith a sealed letter, which we are forwarding to you in accordance with instructions of your late uncle, Abner Barker, before his death, which occurred, as you are of course aware, at Lone Palm Key, Florida, December 20th. Our instructions were to forward the enclosed letter to you one month after your uncle's death, and to inform you that another letter--an exact duplicate in every way of this one--has been sent simultaneously to the only other surviving relative of Abner Barker, namely: Graham Stewart, of Brooklyn, N.Y. Trusting that we may hear from you in case we may be of any service, we remain, Yours very truly, Blackmar, Mathews & Blackmar. [Illustration: Harrison Fisher's Idea of the Heroine.] The letter enclosed by Blackmar, Mathews & Blackmar was in a dirty, home-made, yellow envelope, sealed with five large blobs of red wax. It read as follows: Nephew Allen Spencer:--I send you a chart with this letter. If you are a young man of any energy or ability--which I very much doubt--it will be worth your while to investigate this chart, and put it to whatever use it may suggest.