the gold bug

The narrator explains that some time ago he befriended Mr William Legrand, a flamboyant man who had once been rich and, after losing his fortune, had moved, with his black servant named Jupiter and his dog, from his native New Orleans to Sullivan's Island. Legrand finds a gold scarab by chance and leaves it with an acquaintance. The narrator goes to visit him and they talk about the find. Legrand then draws him a picture to illustrate the beetle. When the narrator seems to mistake the beetle for a skull, Legrand is furious.

A few days go by and Jupiter turns up at the narrator's house with a summons to appear before Legrand. When they meet, Legrand tells him that he wants to go on an excursion with some hoes. The narrator thinks he is crazy, but finally accompanies him. When they arrive at the indicated spot, Legrand asks Jupiter to climb a tree with the golden beetle, gives him directions and tells him that there is a skull on one of the branches, which turns out to be true. Jupiter has to throw the scarab through the left eye of the skull. It falls to the ground and from that point, Legrand begins to stride. Then he orders them to dig.

No matter how hard they dig, they find nothing, and when they are back, Legrand asks Jupiter which is his left and discovers that he cannot distinguish it. So they go back and this time he asks him to throw the beetle out the other eye. He does the strides again and after digging, a pirate's treasure appears. They take it home, count it and divide it up, becoming very rich men.

The narrator asks Legrand how he learned of the treasure's whereabouts, and Legrand tells him that the skull he thought he saw in the illustration was actually the image behind the drawing, made visible by the fire, when the dog lunged at the narrator and almost dropped the drawing. Using the technique of heating the ink, Legrand discovered a map behind the parchment, which was a piece of paper found next to the scarab. The map belonged to an ancient pirate. To find out how to get to the treasure, Legrand makes a series of investigations, each one more bizarre and difficult to elucidate. He finally discovers the skull on the branch by means of a spyglass, because he decodes an encrypted message, and that is how he finds the place where the treasure is hidd