On Useppa

"Back in the bow he laid the two fillets of fish out on the wood with the flying fish beside them.  After that he settled the line across his shoulders in a new place and held it again with his left hand resting on the gunwale. Then he leaned over the side and washed the flying fish in the water, noting the speed of the water against his hand. His hand was phosphorescent from skinning the fish and he watched the flow of the water against it." Old Man and the Sea




The grandfather had followed the granddaughter across the shallow straits between Caya Costa and Captiva Island, lurching his neck every so often to gesture to her just how close they had been to the origin point of the story of the Captiva Treasure at the Useppa Island sight.  They might have reached the north point of Captiva in only moments at this very easy rate, the smooth skin of the water under the moon light hardly stirring a bubble...except that a pod of dolphins had for whatever reason decided

to circle under them on their short trip back.  One or two might surface just long enough to bare their glowing silvery backs as though signaling something...but what?  "Look out at the beach grandfather" the girl said, just now gaining the full rhythm of the paddle, dragging her small bags of sand dollars along the side of the kayak, "what is that flying across the water?" They watched for a moment at a drift. The dolphins would steam towards the shore and were driving flying fish up on to the sand.  "Aha, they have circled the fish and are chasing them to beach!" he said, only interpreting, not knowing for certain, but he must believe his eyes.  They had been paddling over a school of fish and that is why the dolphins had gathered underneath.  "To finish our story of the treasure, I had failed to mention that it was said the dolphins had led De Madrone

through the straits at Useppa right here to this very shore," he said, still drifting and watching now the dolphins take their self-made bait. "What happened when they heard the voice inside the Trueheart?" she asked.  There was much to be resolved for sure.  The grandfather could see that she had been paying attention.  He would leave out a detail or two, of course, so not to frighten, but this was as good a time as any.  "Well, you see, the pirate De Madrone and his men that night did quickly repair the ship.  This went well for them, but they did not expect to find a woman captive in the captain's quarters.  It is said that she was a daughter of an Incan tribal king, that she was taken for her great beauty and wealth, and that her people had warned that the silver treasure the Spanish had taken was cursed.  She might serve well as a ward against a curse, you see. De Madrone had to think quickly.  As they raised the Trueheart back upright and hauled the silver into cargo, they could see the Calusa Indians returning through the forest with large fishing nets, no doubt to haul the silver back to village themselves.  To the west, it is written, Her Bounty was within sight at the strait at Boca Grande.  De Madrone set sail south through darker blue waters following, for hope and luck, dolphins to the bay at Captiva. Do you know what he did here?"  The grandfather grinned and knew that this would keep the granddaughter well under the spell of the legend tomorrow on island.  "He sailed somewhere to hide from the Calusa and the British pirate ship," she answered.  "Yes, that is eventually what he most

certainly tried to do, although unsuccessful ultimately.  No, he anchored in the deep off of Captiva, and rowed the woman and her treasure right here to the shore, so that one day, hopefully soon, he and his men could return for the girl, the gold and perhaps the island itself.  And yet, as the story goes, they never returned.  The woman was held here captive on a deserted island with the Incan treasure.  Most interesting of all, it has never been found!" The eyes of the girl widened and began to scan

the entirety of the approaching shoreline and could imagine round pots full of glimmering silver somewhere hidden buried under a palmetto. "Some say that one in ten sand dollars found are not sand at all, but silver!" She sunk her hand back over the side of the kayak, lifted her collected sand dollars from Caya Costa quite carefully up over the side of the hull and inspected that they were all there. "I wonder if any of these are silver?"