Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-03-03

no response. l struck match and lit
my candle. Almost the first thing / saw
was Charley's cakes lying about. | did
| not count them. Had done so the dis
covery and rescue of Jack might have
come sooner and by different way.
The fact was that the avenue by which
had descended was blind alley, not
| the true way into the" Devils Parlor. :"
The place In which now found myself
was not at all what l had expected. 1t
was like a small room walled with rock
and paved with gravel. There were
only bones of animals hero and the
cakes which poor Charley fancied had
been eaten by Jack. l gave the pre-
arranged signal-a jerk ut the rope
| and was slowly drawn up out of this
dark den. Till now all believed that
the Devils Parlor" was huge sub
| terranean cavern. FIVE miles farther
ON there was a similar cleft leading into
another cavern toward the west of I'M
known depth. We went thither, and
descended that too. Here | came near
to being drowned. 1t communicated
with the sea and was filed at the bot
tom with salt water, into which, with
out seeing it, was lowered, and in
fact fell with a souse. By the slack
ness of the rope those above concluded
that | had reached the bottom. Though
| tugged vigorously at the rope they
were not aware of it. | could not tug
strongly while l was swimming, and
then the great length of rope rendered
it, l suppose, less sensitive. Here, too,
all the way down and up again | shout
ed at intervals and heard no response.
1t was night when we returned home.
No sign of Jack had been discovered by
any one that day. The coast guards
had been out since morning visiting the
rocks and islands, of which there were
several in the neighborhood, and had
been as unsuccessful as myself. When
awoke next day, it seemed to me that
had caught very bad cold. | got up
nevertheless, but the moment my moth
er saw me she ordered me TO my room.
l refused to go, and my father had to
exert his parental authority in a very
stern manner before | could be got to
obey. In the afternoon Charley arrived.
| was aware of the fact, but of little
more, for by this time the fever had SO
grown upon me that | was beginning to
be unconscious. After this l remember
no moro till | began to be convalescent
after n severe attack of brain foyer.
The searching for Jack had gone on
without me during the remainder of
October and the beginning of November
while l lay at death S door, But the
Eearchers had found no sign or trace of
hrOt hpr Thh rnlinn I1ttprlV
nonplused. | heard that very clever
detective had been sent down from Dub
lin, but after wasting Il fortnight had
returned, saying that we were all mad.
l heard, too, that during all these weeks
little Charley regularly every second
day, wet or fine, used to go to the Dew
il Parlor' and roll down his brown
cake. My mother made no objection.
He still continued to do it even after l
began to move about and after | had
declared to him that there was nothing
at the bottom of the cavern but gravel,
bones and the bread which he was
wasting. | began to think of forcibly
restraining him from this practice, for
it was killing my mother, who used to
weep for a long time after she had Civ
SI1 MN MS NdhC anu SCt1l 1Ili1l p4l nc
neighbors watched him with the utmost
compassion, and indeed | have never
seen anything so pathetic.
Was it said in your dream that Jack
was in the Devils Parlor, " | asked
him.
No." he said, but [ believe that
he is there without being told. told
myself.
When l was sufficiently cOnvalescent
to be able to move about again, organ
lied a search party of my own. | be-
lieve we visited every cave and nook
along the coast for Is miles on either
side of Dhu-Corrig. We searched also
the islands and isolated rocks out in the
sea, though they had already been
searched by the coast guards. That Jack
was or had been in some cavern
knew. These slate colOred pigeons, blue
rocks as they are called, roost in caves.
Indeed we never called them anything
but cave pigeons. But where was the
cave? 1t now occurred to me that jack,
having got fast to some unusually large
tish-the suntish, for example, could do
it-had been drawn into and under the
sea. | knew that under such Circum-
stances he would not let go his rod. and
that while under the water | suspect
ed that he had been sucked through Il
submarine tunnel into some unknown
and otherwise inapproaChable interior
cavern and had been unable to rcdis-
cover or retrace the passage by which
he had entered. This cavern, thought,
might communicate with the open air
-
or assures along the coast by some mar
row outlet through which his carrier
pigeons might have escaped. Inprob-
able as was this theory, it was the
most probable that | could frame and
was in fact rather near the truth. All
the theories and SurmiSes of the police
contained one or moro incredible as
sumptions. | procured the services of
the same diver who had been formerly
employed by Mr.. Watkins. For more
than three weeks under my superintend
ence he made submarine searchingS of
the kind indicated on either side of
Dhu-COrrlg and to a considerable dis
lance each way. All was, however, in
vain. The diver gave up first He said
it was sin to waste any more of my
my fathers sanction | now wrote to
the board of works i'll Dublin asking
them to send me another. Mr.. Harris,
the man whom 1 employed, obstinately
refused to go on with the search. This
diver was actually on his way down
from Dublin, when-Twhen in fact
Edward Freeman himself disappeared
just as suddenly and unaccountably as
his brother had donel
CHAPTER VII.
CROHOoR-BEG - SAMUEL WATKINS To
HENRY VIGORS.
You will no doubt have already read
the official report in which l have in
formed the authorities of the disappear
ance of Rev. Mr.. Freeman's second son
under circumstances somewhat similar