"Monsieur no doubt has heard of the great sensation?" commented Jean.
"No, what is that, Jean?"
"The papers have been full of nothing else. It seems a band of
cutthroat river pirates have stolen a gentleman's yacht, and so far as
can be told, have escaped with it down the river, perhaps entirely to
the Gulf."
"That, Jean," said I, "is a most extraordinary thing. Are you sure of
the facts?"
"Naturally--is it not all in the paper? This gentleman then has his
yacht anchored at Natchez, and he goes ashore on important business.
Comes then this band of river ruffians in the dark, and as though
pirates of a hundred years ago, and led by Jean Lafitte himself, they
capture the vessel!"
"Mon Dieu! Jean you do not say so?"
"But assuredly I say so; nor is that all, Monsieur. On board this
yacht was a young and beautiful lady of great wealth and beauty, as
well--the fiancée, so it is said, of this gentleman who owns the
yacht. What is the action of these pirates in regard to this beautiful
young lady and her aunt, who also is upon the yacht for the cruise? Do
they place these ladies ashore? No, they imprison them upon the boat,
and so, pouf! off for the gulf. Nor has any trace of them been found
from that time till now. A rumor goes that the gentleman who owns the
yacht is at this time in New Orleans, but as for that unfortunate
young lady, where is she to-night? I demand that, Monsieur. Ah! And
she is beautiful."
"Now, is not this a most extraordinary tale you bring, Jean? Let us
hope it is not true. Why, if it were true, that ruffian might escape
and hide for days or weeks in the bayous around Barataria, even as
Jean Lafitte did a hundred years ago."
"Assuredly he might. Ah, I know it well, 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 from the plantation of Monsieur Edouard Manning, below New
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 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 café, 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."