Tall Tales

I don't know about you but I still enjoy a good story. 

As a young man I recall reading about a boater in the Florida Keys. 

After a violent storm  waterman in the keys would often find changes.  Channels would mysteriously  move.  Small islands would appeared and disappear in a random manner.  Most boaters treated this as a minor nuisance as they would have to learn new routes through the shallow waters.

This old salt was a little different, he enjoyed the constant changing scenery and and discovering what the sea would give up. 

One afternoon,  after a particularly bad storm he decided to go out and see if he could locate lead weights he could use as ballast.  He figured he had at most a couple of hours until sunset.  He planned to be back in well before dark as another storm was approaching.

He motored around for an hour and was about to give up when he saw an interesting pile of Debris' blown up on a shallow sand bar.   Much to his surprise he saw just what he was looking for.  There they were lead bars stacked in a pile as if they were waiting just for him.   He grabbed a dozen or so and considered taking more but it was getting dark and he decided it was prudent to return home. 

The wind had  picked up.  He sailed back as quickly as he could.  He secured his boat to the dock and stacked the lead bars on the dock.  It started raining and he hurried home. 

It was a couple of days before he got back down to the dock.  When he got there he noticed a friend of his, the owner of another boat tied up nearby, was staring quizzically at his lead ballast, he wondered why. 

Jokingly he asked his friend if he wanted some of the lead.  His friend responded that he had never seen lead cast in that particular shape, in fact he said the only thing he ever saw it that shape was bullion.  His friend slowly stood and walked across the dock to the pile of bars and picked one up.  He took out a pocket knife and chipped away at the barnacles until a bright yellow color appeared.  The two looked at each other and realized they were looking at a stack of gold bars that had been left unprotected on the dock these last several days.

The two friends decided to form a partnership and go after the rest of the bullion.  

Search as much as they might the pair never discovered the location of the lost treasure.