Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery

by Timothy Paterson

coins, mostly silver and gold coins. As the others checked the other cabinets, they found that they too, were filled with bins of coins.

  Mara checked the dates on coins from several bins and saw that they ranged from the 1850’s to the early 1900’s. The latest date that she found was 1905. Most of the coins were in mint condition. In fact, Mara did not think that any of them had ever been in circulation at all.

  Everyone was very excited, except for Reverend Long. “What’s the matter?” Mara asked him. “Now you have enough money to build a new church and help the community”.

  “Mara” said Reverend Long, “You don’t know this, but in the 1920’s, this house belonged to a member of the Chicago mob. In fact, the owner of the house was an accountant for Al Capone. If this money belonged to him, then it came from illegal gambling, bootleg alcohol, and other criminal activities. I cannot use tainted money to do God’s work. It doesn’t feel right.”

  “First of all” said Mara, “If it did belong to him, than by using the money to help people, would cancel out the bad things that happened over seventy years ago. Second, I do not believe that the money belonged to him. This money is much older than that. There are no coins with dates past 1905.”

  Mara knew that Reverend Long would feel uneasy unless he knew for sure that the money had nothing to do with organized crime. Mara began searching through the cabinets for clues as to its original owner. On the top shelf of one of the cabinets, she found the proof that she needed. It was an envelope with a letter in it. Mara first read it to herself, and then she read the letter aloud for all to hear:

  “Congratulations to you my friend, for finding my secret vault. It is now yours. Perhaps I should explain. My name is Sylvester Carter. I was born on the 2nd day of April in the year of our Lord 1819. I was born in County Cork, Ireland. My family was very poor. I was one of nine children.

  When I was eighteen, I decided to seek my fortune in America. Therefore, on June 5th, 1837, I set sail for New York.

  For many years, I worked in New York City putting aside as much of my earnings as possible. I bought only the bare necessities. In 1849, I suddenly got the itch to travel and see more of the country. I headed for Chicago.

  When I arrived here, I found a job working with the railroad. I was a visionary in those days, and I could see a prosperous future in the railroad industry. I listened carefully when I heard people talking about financial matters and I invested as much money as I could spare in buying railroad stock.

  As my investments grew, so did my status in society. As my knowledge of the railroad industry grew, I was quickly promoted up the ranks, until I was superintendent of the railroad.

  In 1857, I began building this house. It was completed a year later. In 1860, I married Dorothy Clark, who like myself, had emigrated from Ireland. We wanted a family, but when two of our children died shortly after birth, we decided that it was not meant to be. Instead, we adopted the neighborhood children, so to speak, and used the money to help them.

  Neither my wife nor I trusted banks, and instead, we converted a lot of our wealth into silver and gold coins, which you will find in these cabinets here in our private vault. Even with all of the money we spent on helping others less fortunate, our wealth continued to grow.

  After my wife died four years ago, I was suddenly all alone. With no family to leave my fortune to, I decided to hide it and give it to whoever was lucky enough to find it. Over the last four years, I have quietly sold all of my railroad stock. Some of the money was used to help children in the neighborhood, and the rest was converted into gold and silver coins for my vault.

  The only thing that I request of you is that you use some of this money to help the children in the community. Be careful! Many men have been corrupted by greed. The most happiness that my wife and I have had with our money is when we shared it with others.

  Good luck and God bless you,

  Sylvester Carter

  July 29, 1905”

  Mara put the letter down and added; “According to the records that I found at the Chicago Public Library, Mr. Carter died December 16, 1906. What this means, Reverend Long, is that all of this money is yours and it isn’t ‘tainted’.”

  Reverend Long looked thoughtfully at Mara for a long time and then he said; “No, Mara. It is all yours. You are the one who found it.”

  Mara refused to take the money. “Reverend Long, use this money to help your church and your community, as you have been doing for the past thirty years. It is what Mr. and Mrs. Carter did. You are just continuing the work he started back in 1860. You are continuing his legacy as well as doing God’s work.”

  Mara got permission to use Reverend Long’s computer, and then she began collecting an assortment of the coins from the vault. She wanted to get an idea of their approximate value by looking them up on the internet.

  Mara was surprised to find that they were worth more than she had expected. After searching for the values of several of the coins, Mara came to the last few coins; all of them were 1895-P Morgan silver dollars. Two of them were extra shiny, but all three appeared to be in mint condition. What she found almost made her faint. She had to check quite a few coin sites before she believed what she had read.

  Mara took the coins back into the basement. When she saw everyone handling the coins, she very calmly told them to put down the coins gently. Then, she began searching the bins to find if there were any more 1895-P Morgan dollars. She realized that the bins were in chronological order. There were at least 100 Morgan dollars from each year they were minted and all appeared to be in mint condition. Then, she found the 1895-P dollars. There were a few hundred of the extra-shiny or proof coins, but there were four bins full of the regular 1895-P dollars. Mara was stunned. She realized that there were several thousand of them. Everyone was staring at Mara when she screamed.

  “How much do you think all of these coins are worth?” asked Reverend Long. Mara did not know where to start. “There are thousands of coins in this vault, and most of them are in extra-fine to mint condition. They range from twenty-dollar gold pieces and silver dollars, to other silver and gold coins. They range in date from the 1850’s to 1905. Most of them would sell from one hundred dollars, all the way up to a couple thousand dollars. In this vault, there are probably one hundred complete Morgan silver dollar sets. In the past few years, some of these exact coins have sold for over a quarter of a million dollars.”

  As everybody was beginning to realize the total value of the complete collection of coins, Mara took a few deep breaths. “The gems of this collection are right here,” said Mara, as she held up the three coins. “In 1895, eight hundred proof coins were minted of the 1895-P Morgan dollars. Only about one hundred are known to exist. One of these proof coins recently sold for over one hundred thousand dollars. There were also twelve thousand regular issue coins minted at that mint that year. Of those, not one has ever been found in circulation. Some experts believe that they were never put into circulation, but were melted down for the much needed silver in them.”

  Mara held up one of the regular coins and said, “There are four bins filled with these coins. If I am right, there are twelve thousand of these 1895-P Morgan dollars here in this vault. I believe that Mr. Carter was in the right place at the right time and he purchased every one of the coins. This is a coin that every serious coin collector would love to get his or her hands on. They are in mint condition because they have been hidden here for over a hundred years.”

  “Reverend Long, the total value of these coins in this vault, could be worth well over one hundred million dollars. You can do so much for the kids of this community and city as well as help children around the country.”

  “Well, of course I’ll use the money to help as many kids as I can” said Reverend Long, “but, I think that it’s time for me to step aside and let the church find a younger
pastor who can has more to offer spiritually than I do. I don’t think that I am making a difference anymore.”

  Kelly, Gary and their parents tried to tell Reverend Long that he was mistaken, but he would not listen to them.

  Mara told Reverend Long that she knew the names of some people who were experts in old coins and that she would contact them and have them meet with Reverend Long on Tuesday at the church.

  After Mara, Kelly and Gary, and their parents left Reverend Long’s house, they drove over to the church. The church secretary was still there doing paperwork. When Mara told her about Reverend Long and their plan to show him that he was needed, she was eager to help. She located the church membership records of the previous thirty years.

  Mara, Gary and Kelly started calling the rest of the teens in their Sunday school class and told them all to meet at the church as soon as possible. When everyone was assembled, Mara, Kelly and Gary explained their plan. The list of all former children, who had attended the church in the previous three decades, was divided up between the teenagers.

  “We only have a day and a half to find as many of them as we can,” said Mara. “Use the internet, contact their former neighbors, do whatever is necessary. Have them all meet here at the church