Page 111 (2/2)

The Lady and the Pirate Eh 10230K 2023-09-01

and hide for days or weeks in the bayous around Barataria, even as

Jean Lafitte did a hundred years ago"

"Assuredly he ht Ah, I knoell, that country But Jean

Lafitte was no pirate, simply a merchant who did not pay duties And

he sold silks and laces cheap to the people hereabout--I could show

you the very causeway they built across the marsh, to reach the place

where he landed his boats at the heads of one of the great bays--it is

not far fro, belo

Iberia Believe me, Monsieur, the country folk hunt yet for the buried

treasure of Jean Lafitte; and sometimes they find it"

"You please me, Jean Tell me more of that extraordinary person"

"Extraordinary, you may call him, Monsieur And he had a ith

women, so it is said--even his captives caenerous and bold was he"

"A daredevil fellow I doubt not, Jean?"

"You ood and many kindnesses to all the

folk in the lower parts of this state in tione 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 café, once worked a negro boy He, being sick, I help hiro, 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 hiro, had

helped his master to bury that same treasure"