Adventures of Pudge

THE TREASURE TROVE

Twelve year old Pudge and his friend Phil Johnson were playing baseball at the park when Phil asked Pudge if he had

heard that the old Purdy building was going to be demolished.

“Yeah, I heard my mom and dad talking about it,” said Pudge. “I think it’s going to happen tomorrow.”

“I’d like to watch it. Are you interested?” Phil replied.

“It might be fun, I’ve never seen a building get knocked down. What time are you going?”

“I’ll find out and call you tonight.”

“Okay,” said Pudge.

That evening Pudge told his parents that he wanted to go with Phil the next day to watch the wreckers knock down the

Purdy building. “Phil’s going to call me and tell me what time. Can I go watch? We’ll make sure we stay far enough away so

we won’t be in any danger or be in anybody’s way.”

“I don’t see why not,” said Mr. Hammond. “I remember watching an old building get knocked down once. It was fun.”

Phil called and said the crane was already set up and was going to start working at 8 in the morning. The boys agreed to

meet at the corner of Elm Street, with their bikes, at 7:30.

The crane was a huge piece of equipment. Pudge hadn’t imagined there was any machine that stood as tall as the

crane did. The operator had to climb a series of ladders to reach the cab from which he could operate the controls. It was

positioned diagonally across the street from where the Purdy building was located. Each street was cordoned off in each

direction.

The boys locked their bikes in the rack behind city hall two blocks away and then climbed a tree half a block from the

crane. To reach this vantage point they had to sneak in the back door of a clothing store owned by Phil’s uncle, then exit by

the front door. The tree was a short distance from the clothing store. Fortunately, no one saw them climb the tree; otherwise,

they might not have been allowed to stay.

Shortly after settling themselves in the tree the crane operator climbed to his cab and switched on the motor. The boys

sat there fascinated as they watched the crane being extended even further upward. A large ball was attached to a chain

which hung from a hook at the top of the crane. By maneuvering the arms of the crane the operator was able to position the

ball so that, when released, it would swing out from the crane an, after gaining momentum, strike a corner of the building.

Pudge and Phil watched spellbound as the ball swung once, twice, then a third time against a corner of the building.

Each time the building shook and trembled and large sections of the wall fell to the ground but the building didn’t collapse.

The operator moved the crane to another location. From this new location he attacked an adjacent corner. On the fourth

swing from this new location the front of the building caved in and the entire front wall collapsed into the street, taking the roof

with it. A huge cloud of dust rose from the debris and settled down on everything in sight, including the two boys and their

tree.

To finish the job the crane had to be moved from its location facing the front of the building to a new site in a parking lot

behind the building. This took considerable maneuvering on the part of the crane operator so the boys had time to move to a

new location to witness the last step in the demolition. This they found by sitting on top of a high wall in back of the local

funeral parlor.

Less than an hour after moving to its new location the operator succeeded in knocking down the remaining inner and

outer walls of the structure. Again, the boys were enthralled.

Later, as they rode their bikes back home, Phil mentioned something his mother had told him. “The upstairs floors in the

building used to be apartments that people rented. The renters were moved out a few months ago when it was decided to

knock the building down. I wonder where they went. Oh, something else Mom said; when the people were moved out they

found one old lady in her bed, dead.”

Pudge responded to this by saying, “My dad told me that he and a friend scrounged through the cellar of an old building

like that once and found all kinds of fun things. I wonder if there’s any good junk in that cellar. Why don’t we go back there

tomorrowand look.”

“Good idea,” said Phil

The next morning.the boys again rode their bikes downtown and locked them in back of City Hall. From there they

walked to the parking lot behind the site where the Purdy building had stood. None of the debris had ben touched. As a

result there were piles of rubble lying where it had fallen when the building was razed. The boys picked their way very

carefully through the mounds of brick and other debris looking for an entrance to the cellar. When they found what looked like

the top of a stairway it was almost completely covered by old timbers and sections of wall. Working quietly so they wouldn’t

be observed they pushed and pulled most of the rubble to one side.

The stairway was loose and tilted from the impact of what had fallen on top of it. By treading very carefully they made it to

the bottom of the stairs without mishap. To their surprise the cellar was open and uncluttered. One long passageway down

the center led to a series of small cubicles which had served as storage rooms for the building’s tenants. Most were empty,

some had trash left behind by the tenants.

One room had a broken child’s tricycle and an old rake and shovel. The last room they came to had a padlock on the

door but the door itself had a large crack down the center panel. Pudge returned to the room containing the old tools to get

the shovel and used it to pry the split panel apart so the two of them could squeeze through into the cubicle.

Inside was a large, upright storage locker, which they discovered was full of old clothes, and an old, battered looking

trunk, again padlocked.

“Gee, I wonder who all this stuff belongs to,” said Phil.

Pudge scratched his head and replied, “It must belong to someone who lived in the building; maybe that old lady who

died.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“I wish I knew what was in the trunk,” said Pudge.

A little nervously Phil replied, “If we open it we might get arrested for breaking and entering.”

Pudge responded with, “If we just leave it here unopened they’re probably going to bury it all when they clear all that junk

away upstairs.” After saying this Pudge again took the shovel and pried the lock, hasp and all, off the trunk.

To their astonishment the trunk contained several small boxes crammed full of jewelry and a larger box which was divided

into sections. Each of these sections held a notebook in which the pages were coins of various denominations, all properly

labeled as to year and denomination. Some of the coins had dates going back almost 100 years. Obviously, it had been

someone’s coin collection. Obvious also, was that the boys had stumbled onto something that could be quite valuable.

“Holy cow, said Phil. ”Look at that will you.”

“I think we’d better leave everything right where it is and go tell someone what we’ve found. Perhaps my dad, he’s at the

station right now.” (Pudge’s father was the station master at the railroad station in Wayton, Massachusette.)

The boys retrieved their bicycles and rode to the depot. There, they waited until Mr. Hammond wasn’t busy with the

details of his job, then Pudge described what they had found in the cellar.

After explaining their find Pudge added, “We didn’t know what to do about reporting what we found. It might be worth a

lot of money and we don’t know who it belongs to.”

“You did the right thing leaving it where it is,” said Mr. Hammond. “I’ll check with my attorney and see what he says, but

the chances are, unless the owner can be found, it belongs to the wrecking company.”

That evening at the dinner table Mr. Hammond explained to his wife what Pudge and Phil had found in the cellar and then

said to Pudge, “Charlie Orton is going to find out who lived in the building and where they are now. That way we can find out

if they left any trunks in the cellar.”

“There was an old lady who was found dead there,” said Pudge. “Maybe it belonged to her.”

“I guess we’ll have to explore that angle too,” his dad replied. “Perhaps there are other family members who can be

located. I’ll have Charlie look into that too.”

For the next several days Phil and Pudge waited anxiously for the attorney to provide some answers for their

predicament. Each evening Pudge asked his dad if there was any news only to be told sometimes inquiries such as those

the attorney was making took time.

“As soon as we know something I’ll let you know,” said Mr. Hammond.

Three days after the boys discovered the treasure Mr. Hammond informed Pudge he had some of the answers they had

been looking for. None of the former residents had left anything in the cellar, but the lawyer had located the daughter of the

woman who died and was waiting to hear from her. “Maybe we’ll have an answer tomorrow,” he said.

The next day Pudge’s mother called him to the phone. “There’s a Mrs. Harris on the phone who says it was her mother

who was found dead in her apartment when the residents were being moved out.”

When Pudge answered the phone Mrs. Harris spoke very pleasantly to him. “I understand you and a friend found a trunk

in the cellar of the Purdy building that might have belonged to my mother.”

“Yes,” replied Pudge. “There were some things in the trunk that are probably worth some money. We thought it best to

try to find who it belongs to.”

“That’s very honest of you,” said Mrs. Harris. “It’s possible the trunk was my mother’s. My husband and I went through her

apartment after she died and didn’t find anything of value there. All I can think of that might have been in the trunk would be

her jewelry and my dad’s coin collection. I don’t think either one is worth much though.”

Pudge became excited when he heard Mrs. Harris mentioned the coin collection and asked her to hold on while he

asked his mother a question.

Pudge turned to his mother and repeated what Mrs. Harris had said, then asked, “What do I tell her?”

Mrs Hammond answered, “Tell her we’ll talk to our attorney, Charlie Orton, and then he’ll call her.”

After Pudge passed this information to Mrs. Harris his mother called Mr. Orton and informed him what Mrs. Harris had

told Pudge.

Charlie then advised Mrs. Hammond, “I’ll call her and inform her that, if she can identify the contents of the trunk, she will

need to call the trucking company and file a claim with them, or I can do it for her. What she does from then on is up to her.”

Two days later Pudge received another call from Mrs. Harris. “My husband and I picked up the trunk yesterday and, after

thinking it over, decided you and your friend deserve a reward for finding it. How would you two like to have the coin

collection?”

“Oh boy,” exclaimed Pudge. “I would and I’m sure Phil would too. Let me call him and I’ll call you right back.” After

writing down Mrs. Harris’ number Pudge called Phil and got an excited “yes” to his question.

When Pudge called Mrs. Harris and informed her that he and Phil would love to have the coin collection she asked

Pudge for his address and said she would deliver it that evening so she could thank hin personally.

Pudge called Phil again and made arrangements for Phil to stay overnight with him. That way both boys would be there

when Mrs. Harris arrived. At about eight that evening a car pulled into the driveway. A very large woman got out and walked

to the door; in her hands she carried a large box. Mr. Hammond opened the door and intro- duced himself, then his wife and

the two boys.

“I think it’s wonderful to find two young people so honest,” she gushed. “Some boys your age would have just taken

everything and not said a word to anyone. I don’t know what their parents are thinking. Your parents need to be

complimented for raising you properly.”

After Mrs. Harris left Mr. Hammond sat down with the two boys “There’s one slight problem we have to work out. Since

you boys are to share in the ownership of the coin collection we need to figure out what to do with the collection and how to

protect each boy’s share in the ownership. That is, unless you want to split it in half and each of you take half.” Both Pudge

and Phil expressed a vigorous to this suggestion.

Mr. Hammond continued, “We also don’t know how valuable the collection is. Perhaps the first thing to do is take it to Ike

Crain’s coin shop and have him take a look. Do you think your mother could take the two of you there tomorrow, Phil? She

would need to call first to see if he can handle it tomorrow.”

“Let me call her,” said Phil. “I’m sure she can take us.” Phil then called his mom and arranged to have her pick them up

in the morning and take them to the coin shop.

“After Ike appraises we can then decide what to do to protect each of your interests,” said Mr. Hammond. “I’ll talk to my

lawyer about it in the morning.”

Ike Crain examined all the coins very closely the next day. He advised them that most of the coins, at that time, were not

worth much more than their face value, which was about $30. Some time in the future they might have greater value. One of

the notebooks, however, the one containing the oldest coins, he declared to be worth at least $200 and, in the future, would

surely increase greatly in value. The boys, and Mrs. Johnson, were astounded to hear this news and decided to go to the

depot immediately to inform Mr. Hammond.

“Thank you Mr. Crain, “ said Pudge. “My dad will probably want to get back to you later.”

When they arrived at the railroad station they again had to wait while Mr. Hammond completed some work he was doing.

Then Pudge told him what Ike Crain had said.

“It sounds like Phil and I could be rich some day if we hang on to the coins,” Pudge added.

His dad replied, “That’s very possible. I talked to Charlie Orton earlier and he suggested that both of you sign a contract

agreeing to put the coins away somewhere for safekeeping and also agreeing that neither of you can sell any part of the

collection without a written agreement from the other. It’s a standard contract similar to what many business partners have.”

Later that day Mrs. Johnson drove them to Charlie Orton’s office where they each signed, and Mr. Orton witnessed, a

contract like the one described by Mr Hammond. The coins were then stored away in a bank safety deposit box where Mrs.

Johnson kept all her important papers. The boys were assured they would have access to the coins any time the bank was

open.