34- MISS MARPLE - Agatha Christie - short stories

the Spanish Armada. So enthusiastic was he that one could almost imagine that he had been an eyewitness at the scene. Is there anything in reincarnation? I wonder--I very much wonder." "You are so romantic, Raymond dear," said Miss Marple, looking benignantly at him. "Romantic is the last thing that I am," said Raymond West, slightly annoyed. "But this fellow Newman was chock-full of it, and he interested me for that reason as a curious survival of the past. It appears that a certain ship belonging to the Armada, and known to contain a vast amount of treasure in the form of gold from the Spanish Main, was wrecked off the coast of Cornwall on the famous and treacherous Serpent Rocks. For some years, so Newman told me, attempts had been made to salve thc ship and recover the treasure. I believe such stories are not uncommon, though the number of mythical treasure ships is largely in excess of the genuine ones. A company had been formed, but had gone bankrupt, and Newman had been able to buy the rights of the thing-or whatever you call it--for a mere song. He waxed very enthusiastic about it all. According to him it was merely a question of the latest scientific, up-to-date machinery. The gold was there, and he had no doubt whatever that it could be recovered. "It occurred to me as I listened to him how often things happen that way. A rich man such as Newman succeeds almost without effort, and yet in all probability the actual value in money of his find would mean little to him. I must say that his ardour infected me. I saw galleons drifting up the coast, flying before the storm, beaten and broken on the black rocks. The mere word galleon has a romantic sound. The phrase 'Spanish Gold' thrills the schoolboy--and the grown-up man also. Moreover, I was working at the time upon a novel, some scenes of which were laid in the six- to download complete story http://www.4shared.com/get/ouTsKRL4/Agatha_Christie-uk-Complete_sh.html