n. Tell me more of that extraordinary person."

"Extraordinary, you may call him, Monsieur. And he had a way with
women, so it is said--even his captives came to admire him in time, so
generous and bold was he."

"A daredevil fellow I doubt not, Jean?"

"You may say that. But of great good and many kindnesses to all the
folk in the lower parts of this state in times gone by. Now--say it
not aloud, Monsieur--scarce a family in all Acadia but has map and key
to some buried treasure of Jean Lafitte. Why, Monsieur, here in this
very cafe, once worked a negro boy. He, being sick, I help him as a
gentleman does those negro, to be sure, and he was of heart enough to
thank me for that. So one day he came to me and told me a story of a
treasure of a descendant of Lafitte. He himself, this negro, had
helped his master to bury that same treasure."

"And does he know the place now? Could he point it out?"

"Assuredly, and the master who buried it now is dead."

"Then why does not the negro boy go and dig it up again, very
naturally?"

"Ah, for the best reasons. That old Frenchman, descendant of Jean
Lafitte, was no fool. What does he in this burial of treasure? Ah! He
takes him a white parrot, a black cat and a live monkey, and these
three, all of them, he buries on top of the treasure-box and covers
all with earth and grass above the earth. And then above the grave he
says such a malediction upon any who may disturb it as would alone
frighten to the death any person coming there and braving such a
curse. I suggested to the negro boy that he should show me the spot.
Monsieur, he grew pale in terror. Not for a million pounds of solid
gold would he go near that place, him."

"That also is a most extraordinary story, Jean. Taken with this other
fairy tale which you have told me to-night, you almost make me feel
that we are back in the great old days which this country once saw.
But alas!"

"As you say, Monsieur, alas!"

"Now as to that ruffian who stole the gentleman's yacht," I resumed.
"Has he reflected? Has he indeed made his way to the Gulf? Why, he
might even be hiding here in the city somewhere."

"Ah, hardly that, and if so, he well may look out for the law."

"I think a sherbet would be excellent for the lady now, Jean," I
ventured, whereat he departed. I turned over the paper and showed
Helena her own portrait on the front page, four columns deep and set
in such framing of blackfaced scare type as made me blush