This short story is about William Legrand who, after finding a strange golden beetle, becomes obsessed with a cryptic parchment in which he has wrapped the beetle. With the help of his servant Jupiter and a sceptical unnamed narrator, Legrand deciphers a secret message written in invisible ink, which leads them on a treasure hunt that culminates in the discovery of a buried pirate treasure. Not much to say, apart from the nice bit about the logic of code-breaking the message.
“And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de putty goole-bug! de poor little goole-bug, what I boosed in dat sabage kind ob style! Aint you shamed ob yourself, nigger? – answer me dat!”