REFERENCES "The Count of Monte Cristo", dir. Alexandre de La Patellière, Mathieu Delaporte, 2024 "Pirates of the Caribbean", dir. G. Verbinski, 2003
MAIN CHARACTERS: Archibald Hunter - a young man of 28 years old, tall, strong, "of a robust build and athleticism." Gormala McNeil - clairvoyant. A tall, thin old woman, imperious, impressive in appearance, with large eyes and an aquiline nose. Anita Marjorie - an American, heiress to a large fortune. A young girl, independent and courageous, with a lively, intelligent face, tall, slender and unusually beautiful. Mrs. Jack - Anita's companion, her former nanny. A stocky, thin, short old woman of a timid disposition. Don Bernardino is a Spanish nobleman, a descendant of an ancient family – with a proud bearing, tall, slender, with a high, aquiline nose, with expressive black eyes, a true Spanish grandee.
SYNOPSIS Archibald Hunter, a young lawyer, 28 years old, with a small fortune, but allowing him to travel the world, fascinated by the harsh northern nature, settles on the shore of the bay in the fishing village of Winnifold. Gloomy nature with harsh rocky landscapes, night tides near the reefs, an ancient castle with secret passages - here the hero has a mysterious encounter with a strange old woman named Gormala McNeil, who calls herself a clairvoyant. From her, he unexpectedly learns that he himself possesses a mystical ability to foresee certain events—the "Gift of Second Sight." As if to confirm her words, Hunter experiences several supernatural events and visions. For example, he saw a ghostly procession ascending a steep path from the depths of the sea and slowly, silently, into St. Olaf's Well, considered sacred by the local population. These were the ghosts of those who had drowned in these waters over the years, from shaggy savages clad in skins to warriors of the Great Armada.
Gormala tells him of a Mystery of the Sea, connected with enormous treasures and a "golden husband" lying on the seabed, and that his gift was given to him for a reason, perhaps precisely to unravel this Mystery of the Sea.
At high tide, admiring the raging sea, Hunter notices two women in dire straits on a rocky island, on a reef about to be overwhelmed by the waves, a young girl and a thin old woman. He comes to their aid just in time and saves Marjorie Anita, a girl who is also surrounded by a mystery, and her companion from certain death. The girl is extraordinarily beautiful, and Hunter is completely captivated by her. They continue to get to know each other and soon fall in love. Hunter proposes to Anita, and she accepts.
Hunter doesn't know who he saved, and Marjorie hasn't revealed much about herself, but his friends inform him that the girl is a wealthy American who is being pursued by a gang of kidnappers hoping to receive a hefty ransom for her, something Marjorie herself doesn't yet know. Furthermore, the girl has intervened in politics, specifically Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain. The heiress of a huge fortune, she bought and donated a battleship to the American government, whose crew is ready to go through fire and water for her, so she is under special US protection.
Archibalt Hunter initiates his beloved into the Mystery of the Sea, and together they try to unravel it. Not long before, Hunter accidentally buys an antique wooden chest at a local auction, in which he discovers several ancient sheets of paper with encrypted text. He and Marjorie solve the code, and having solved it, they unexpectedly receive the key to the Mystery, which is that in the depths of the sea caves there is a huge ancient Spanish treasure, hidden more than 300 years ago, i.e., in the 16th century, when Spain was at war with England. The papers from the chest contained a letter from the Spanish grandee, Knight of the Cross of the Holy See Bernardino de Escopano, instructing his descendants to preserve the treasure and fulfill the Order of His Holiness Pope Sixtus V - to hand over the treasure to the Spanish king for the fight against England.
The Great Armada transporting the treasure was defeated, and then Bernardino de Escopano, who was on one of the ships, hid the treasure in an underwater cave with many passages and dead ends, near a cape in the bay of the Aberdeen coast, and to disguise the cave, he blew up the entrance.
According to the description in the letter, Hunter finds the entrance to the cave. Archibald and Marjorie begin the search for this treasure together. They manage, having cut a passage, to get into a deep, dark cave in which salt water was about knee-deep. Hunter carefully explores the cave system, risking being buried, bumping into boulders, and making his way through narrow passages. Thoroughly prepared, Hunter and Marjorie venture into the cave's darkness, where numerous branches branch off, passing through rooms where, at high tide, the water rises almost to the ceiling. Finally, they enter a cave where, standing waist-deep in water, they discover several rusty boxes at the bottom, containing money, and in one of the boxes, boxes of precious stones. Opening one of the boxes, they discover magnificent rubies. An entire corner of the cave is filled with ingots. Overcome with excitement, Archie and Marjorie lose track of time and are startled to notice that the tide has begun to rise and the cave is filling with water. They are overcome with terror, unable to imagine how high the water can rise. Just in case, they create a mound of ingots—and just in time, the water rose and finally reached their chins. Embracing, they say goodbye to each other, but suddenly discover that the water no longer rises, and then begins to subside. Utterly exhausted but happy, they finally, grabbing the box of rubies, emerge from the caves where they spent more than 12 hours.
Rested and refreshed, they prepare to descend into the caves again and retrieve the treasure in full. But it turns out that this treasure is also sought by the noble Spaniard Don Bernardino, fulfilling a commission once bequeathed to his family. He knows the history of the treasure, as his distant ancestors had connections to hidden treasures. Don Bernardino is the heir to an ancient castle rented for Marjorie and Mrs. Jack, where he hopes to find a manuscript, and thus a trace of the hidden treasure.
Arriving at the castle, where he has, as he says, "one thing to do," he sees a manuscript on the table and realizes that the couple has uncovered the secret. The dispute between Hunter and the Spaniard about who should own the treasure is postponed while the treasure still rests at the bottom of the cave and has yet to be retrieved.
Meanwhile, the gang is hunting for Marjorie, unaware of the treasure. The bandits achieve their goal: they kidnap the girl, and at the same time, the box with rubies. Moreover, they tracked down Hunter and Marjorie and got to the treasure in the cave. The interests of Archibald Hunter and Bernardino de Escopan are intertwined: firstly, both want to save the girl from the hands of the bandits, and in this the Spaniard, as a truly noble man and gentleman, comes to Hunter's aid; Secondly, they want to return the treasure.
Meanwhile, the bandits, having made an agreement with the smugglers, are trying to evade pursuit by sea and take away the stolen treasure and the captive. But thanks to the clairvoyant Gormala and his mystical Gift of Second Sight, Hunter manages to spot a whaling ship in the stormy sea, in whose cabin Anita Marjorie is held captive, and where the bandits are going to load the treasure. The sea is shrouded in continuous fog, making the ship almost impossible to detect.
Hunter makes an agreement with his friends, American naval officers, that he will swim to the whaling ship and signal the American ship Keystone and the yacht. Despite the storm, Hunter reaches his destination. In a fight with the bandits guarding Anita, he frees his wife and signals his own. A Spaniard who has swum to his aid appears next to him. The bandits are busy urgently transferring treasure from the boat to the deck and do not immediately notice the strangers, only discovering them when Hunter signals his men.
A fight and gunfire ensues, while the ship, with no one in control, rushes toward the rocks and eventually crashes on the reefs. Hunter manages to grab Marjorie, overcoming the furious gusts of waves with his last strength, and get ashore. They are saved. Having reached home, rested and regained their strength, despite the storm, they gather the inhabitants of the village and try to find those on the shore who were also lucky enough to escape. But only the next day, when the storm has subsided, they find the body of Don Bernardino opposite the entrance to the very cave where his ancestor hid the treasure.
His body was returned to Spain and buried next to his ancestors. And the golden figure of Saint Cristobal, which adorned the bow of one of the ships of the Great Armada, was installed on the grave of the Spaniard in the Church of Saint Cristobal in distant Castile.