Extract from Kelly. — biography of Kelly Tarlton

E. V. Sale - 1 November 1989

And there was the perhaps inevitable clairvoyant, offering to point out the location of the gold for a share of the spoils (he eventually told Kelly that he was looking miles away tom the right place). Kelly had never placed his faith in clairvoyants and he was not likely to now, but he allowed himself to be convinced that this one, a young African man, should be allowed a trial. In the event, all they got out of it was a memorably hilarious day.

“I said | would bury a bag of coins in the sandhills near West Terschelling and get him to point out where they were buried. | got 400 guilder coins from the bank, put then in a paper bag and, with lots of other paper bags which we filled with sand, went off with Nicole and Fiona and buried them in holes we dug in the sandhills. When the time came, went along with a metal detector; and when everyone laughed, | said | did not believe the young man would succeed and | did not want to lose the money. He put up such a show of Confidence, however, that even now | was shaken and | began to wonder: my God, maybe it is right.”

“There were about 15 people there to watch, including my wife and daughters and a senior policeman who had been asked to come as an independent witness. The young man clicked his fingers, waved them and started walking around.”

Kelly watched with some satisfaction as the young man picked five or six wrong places and, given a final chance, missed on that one, too, by a good 25 metres. Producing his metal detector, Kelly then proceeded to show where the coins were. “I got a reading, started digging, got only a bottletop. | started to get worried myself then and frantically waved the detector around a bit more and got another reading. I dug down and there was the bag of coins…”