Panama City, July 22.
A mysterious shooting by a man alleged to have found, with two others, a huge gold hoard in the interior of Panama, to-day left unsolved the question of where the xold was secreted, News of the alleged cache was first revealed here early to-day when five transport aeroplanes prepared to fly to David, the capital of Chiriqui province, 200 miles south-west of here, to load $3,000,000 worth of gold bars. The bars, it was said, had been discovered by Mr, Arrin Thorpe, an American; M. Joanes van Stock, a Frenchman, and Herr Antonio Hill, a German. They were reported to have discovered the gold in a sunken tunnel, and it was believed that the treasure was the cache of some ancient free-booter on the Spanish main, Later, however, the President of Panama, Dr. Juan Demosthenes Arosemena, received a telegram from the Chief of Police at David, saying that M. Van Stock, having led police to the tunnel, entered first and then shot himself with a revolver, wounding himself critically.
The gold was missing, although Czechoslovakian workman in the vicinity said he knew the location io be the treasure tunnel.
Local authorities, accordingly, ordered a complete investigation' into ihe case, including an inquiry as to why the Governor of Chiriqui announced that the gold hat been found.
Meanwhile, Mr. Thorpe denied all knowledge of the treasure and Herr Hill could not be located.—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.