ere
brought up. The distance between the upper and lower platforms was
found to be six feet."

In the summer of 1850 a third shaft was sunk just to the west of the
Money Pit, but this also filled with water which was discovered to be
salt and effected by the rise and fall of the tide in the cove. It was
reasoned that if a natural inlet existed, those who had buried the
treasure must have encountered the inflow which would have made their
undertaking impossible. Therefore the pirates must have driven some
kind of a tunnel or passage from the cove with the object of flooding
out any subsequent intruders. Search was made along the beach, and
near where the ring-bolt was fastened in the rock a bed of the brown,
fibrous material was uncovered and beneath it a mass of small rock
unlike the surrounding sand and gravel.

It was decided to build a coffer-dam around this place which appeared
to be a concealed entrance to a tunnel connecting the cove with the
Money Pit. In removing the rock, a series of well-constructed drains
was found, extending from a common center, and fashioned of carefully
laid stone. Before the coffer-dam was finished, it was overflowed by a
very high tide and collapsed under pressure. The explorers did not
rebuild it but set to work sinking a shaft which was intended to cut
into this tunnel and dam the inlet from the cove. One failure,
however, followed on the heels of another, and shaft after shaft was
dug only to be caved in or filled by salt water. In one of these was
found an oak plank, several pieces of timber bearing the marks of
tools, and many hewn chips. A powerful pumping engine was installed,
timber cribbing put into the bottom of the shafts, and a vast amount of
clay dumped on the beach in an effort to block up the inlet of the
sea-water tunnel. Baffled in spite of all this exertion, the
treasure-seekers spent their money and had to quit empty-handed.

Forty years passed, and the crumbling earth almost filled the numerous
and costly excavations and the grass grew green under the sentinel
oaks. Then, in 1896, the cove was once more astir with boats and the
shore populous with toilers. The old records had been overhauled and
their evidence was so alluring that fresh capital was subscribed and
many shares eagerly snapped up in Truro, Halifax and elsewhere. The
promoters became convinced that former attempts had failed because of
crude appliances and insufficient engineering skill,