Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-07-11

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"NY IMPRESSION 1s," SAID MRS. CHAMPION,
"sHE WENT TO YoNKERs.
is a very vague impression, and it may have
been in quite a contrary direction"
"Do you know persisted Mr.. Parker,
sides her mother in this part of the coun-
trya'
'iNo, think she had none. All her other
relatives remained in Ireland
A few more questions in the same vein
concluded the interview. and. Mr.. Parker
went away feeling considerably depressed
with the magnitude of the undertaking
which he had on his hands. He felt certain
that il he could only find this Donnelly or
Donohue, as the case might be, he should
discover some clew to the whereabouts Of
Mrs Brownlow. The more he thought it
over the more he became convinced Of that
theory and the more he felt that he had
made favorable start in his inquiry. His
first step towards finding out where this
woman was was to go to Yonkers. He WIS.,
tied every family of either name in the
town, but learned nothing whatever con-
corning the woman. He could not even dis
cover that any such woman had ever lived
there. 1t took him nearly two weeks to
come to the conclusion that in Yonkers
there was no clew whatever to the mystery
which he was endeavoring to ferret out.
Then he determined to visit in similar
way all the towns along the river between
New York and point from forty to fifty
miles to the north. He began with the set
IL, III IL
Spuyten Duyvil. From Spuyten Duyvil he
worked his way gradually north, and when
three weeks had passed he had secured the
river settlements and had found absolutely
nothing. Then he returned to the city and
spent day or two in rest and looking after
his business, which was suffering sadly
from neglect. When he began to think
over the case again it occurred to him that
he had made an egregious blunder; he had
not takeninto account at all the fact that
Mrs. Brownlow's opera cloak had been
found in the river.
What an ass I was,'' he exclaimed, i'm
patiently. ''Here have been searching on
the east side of the Hudson for four pre-
cious weeks. when the plainest evidence in
the case shows that Mrs. BrOwnlow crossed
the river before starting elsewhere. Now,
whether she met her death while crossing
the river or soon after getting to the other
take another step in the matter until I con-
slider what might have happened had she
crossed the river" Therefore he set his an
alytical powers at work again and reasoned
that il she had crossed the river, as un-
doubtedly she set out to do, she must have
had some point in view to which she want
ed to go. The hypothesis that she was going
to seclude herself at the house If her old
servant stuck in Mr.. Parker's head IN spite
0f SsShQ a
said to himself, ''where this woman lived !;
or, if not this woman, she must have known
where she was going. She would not have
set out blindly, not even In her rage, upon a
journey without having some plan in her
mind, even If it had not been formed until
she had reached the sidewalk of her house
after leaving her husband"
The upshot of his reasoning was that he
secured permission at once to examine Mrs.
Brownlow's correspondence. A large
bundle of letters were turned over to him
and he set about inspecting their post
marks and the handwritlngs on the en-
velopes All those that were postmarked
from cities or towns at a distance were i'm
mediately cast aside, and of all those that
came from points in this immediate vicinity
he did not stop to read any whose super
scription was particularly legible or which
showed in IT'S style that the writer was in
the habit of letter-writing. After two Of
three hours work he had sifted from the
mass OF letters a half dozen in different
hands which he considered it worth while
to look into.
Tho first one he opened was a begging
letter from some one who had announced
herself as widow and an Ell ire stranger
to Mrs. Brownlow Mr.. Parker proceeded
no farther, he threw that aside and took W
another. This was an application for a pc
sition as a waiting maid from girl wht
sand that she had heard of Mrs. Brownlow
through some of her friends. This also Mr..
Parker cast aside, and a feeling of discour-
agement began to settle down upon him
The next one was another begging letter.
The fourth he opened with the idea that he
was simply wasting his time and injurins
his business by neglect for merely
Quixotic enterprise, but as he read the let
ter his eyes began to open, his face flushed
and perspiration started out upon his fore
head. It read as follows:
DEAR MRS. LEONORA: 1t is such a lonl
: time since have seen you. that don't know
you will rember me- take my pen to rite yor
becaws iwood lux to no how you ar. Ihave moi
bin to the City for sevrel years and spose
shood not find my way, II went Their. think
of you CRATE meny times and wunder il yot
ar as prity as you wer wen a little CURL. I hurs
that you wer marid and got yur address from
lizy. the Curl as worked for you for FL,
weaks last Spr.ng. she cam up /, yonkers t
work AMI i saw hur ther wen went over 4
get sum Stun from the Market. doant asl
you to anser this letter becaws you may -Four
get me and ma not care enything about me
6u: awlwas Luvd you when little CURL AM
want to tel YOU how Glad am that you ar
hapy and hoap you VIII be so.
MARY DONNELLY."
CHAPTER VIII
This letter, N a cramped hand, writtel
in mcneil, was without date or any othe
e-,,5epce az to the place where it was writ
ten. The postraark was badly blurred. but
looked ut upside down. crosswise and y
everv other way imaginable, Mr. Parke