The Treasure Chest of Don Jose

Originally Aired: February 4, 1952 Suspense #459, "The Treasure Chest of Don Jose," When a devastating hurricane destroys Jose Gasparia's ancestral home on Black Key in the Gulf of Mexico, his friend Pedro saves his life. As they clear the rubble of the demolished chimney built by Jose's great-grandfather, Pedro discovers a small iron box containing an old parchment. Jose quickly lies to Pedro, claiming it's just a childhood nursery rhyme, but the document is actually a treasure map leading to the buried gold of his notorious pirate ancestor, Don Jose Gasparia. The map directs him to Dog Body Island near Cape Cod, where the treasure lies thirty-three yards south-southeast of the Rocky Guards. Consumed by greed and dismissing the legendary curse placed on his family by the virtuous Dona Margarita, Jose secretly abandons Pedro and travels north to Massachusetts. He rents an isolated cottage on the windswept island and prepares to claim his inheritance. But as Jose begins his search, armed with shovel and parchment, suspicious locals and the weight of his ancestor's dark legacy close in around him, and the curse he so easily dismissed may prove all too real.