Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-03-05

3
Harry came rushing into mB office hold
| ing q pigeon in his hand.
something was tightly wrapped. l saw
| it was linen laced with cord very tight
along the shank between the bird S claw
and its knee. My hands so trembled
with excitement that [ cut myself and
badly, before cut that cord. When
unwound the linen and laid it out upon
| the table, l found upon it various stains
of red. This linen had certainly been
written upon originally, but the rain
had penetrated, and melting the red ink,
| blood no doubt. had converted the char,
acters into mere blotches and stains.
| They were quite illegible. | sent the
boys away and remained alone for a
long time, studying the red daubs and
splashes-you can imagine in what a
state of mind. This rag of linen held
the secret which l verify believe
would have given all my worldly goods
to master. | turned it this way and
that, for there was nothing to indicate
which side should be held uppermost.
Then at last it seemed to me that in one
place | saw a w, after which mere
blotch of red color representing appar-
Fntly the rest of a word and at the end of
it another w. | called my wife to my as
sistance. She was sure of the first W. but
not of the second. CuriOusly enough, both
the boys were sure of the second, but not
of the first. was sure of both myself.
AS You know, | am always sure of every
thing that jumps with my expecta
tions and hopes. You are a phlegmatic
fellow yourself, Harry, a man of sheer
intellect, but l think that even you, if
you had been through these Freeman
experiences, lasting now for more than
five months, with the eyes of the whole
country upon you, you might have been
perhaps as much excited as [ was this
evening. | ran to the shelf for my
Wehster's dictionary. Do you remember
how, when we were sitting here together
last summer after dinner smoking and
thinking of nothing, alittlo girl appeared
at the door and said:
Mrs. HOman's compliments, sir,
and would you lend her tho loan of
your dictionary, for she's writing a let
ter?'
%All't III" y Ou 1NIiltN'
Mr.. Watkins compliments to Mrs.
HOman, and tell her that he has not
read it himself yet.
Well, it was the Same dictionary and
a great deal of trouble I had to get it
out of Mrs. Homan's clutches.
l turned to the letter w and ran my
eye down all the words beginning with
that letter in quest of those which end
ed with the same. Willow would suit;
so would window. There We're others
such as wallow, etc, but l rejected
them. rang for my orderly and had
him make inquiries among the people
and learn whether there was any place
in this neighborhood called by name
in which willow or window occurred.
Now, l had not the least reason for sup
posing that even if my assumption were
correct the word which began and end
ed with "a w was the name of a place.
1t might he verb. 1t might be any
thing, but nevertheless at once jumped
to the conclusion that it was tho lame
of the place where | was to find the
brothers.
l had hardly uttered my directions
when both my nephews cried out at
once:
why, Uncle Sam, there's Curry's
Window" And Harry, who takes more
liberties with me than the other, gave
me to understand that we We're all duff
fers not to have searched Curry7s Win
dow before.
AS l had not the least notion of what
Curry's Window was, they proceeded
to enlighten me. Curry Window, they
said, was little black square hole high
up in the face of the smooth sheer cliff
which extended from Dhu-Corrig to my
COOS. In short, Curry's Window was
the hole out of which the piast in Gro
hoOr-beg's story had appeared when she
devoured the two fishermen.
This was curious coincidence, and
indeed, as Harry suggested, it was sim
gular thing that we should have ex-
plOred the caves in distant islands, yet
not have explored this cavity which
was near Dhu-Corrig. But then how
could the boys have got thither, for there
is no climbing on that cliff, which starts
sheer out of the sea and is accessible
neither by land nor water? l brooded
over this all the night, and the more /
luOuSuI dDOuL IL luS lHOI6 dDSuTu N1u
it seem that the brothers should be i'm
INJURED there. 1t was just possible of
course that the brothers, having fallen
into the sea, might have been sucked
under by current and whirled into
some cavern of which Curry's Window
was another aperture. The theory was
just imaginable, but no more. How
ever, as we had tried to work out SO
many absurd theories, ! thought might
as we'll work out this absurd theory, too,
as do nothing.
Accordingly l laid my plans that
night, and next day had one of my men
lowered from the top of the cliff by
rope. In order to signal to those who
held the rope went out in boat rowed
by the coast guards, who have been ex-
tremely helpful to me in all this bust
ness. Lieutenant Crumps indeed, that
steadiest of churchgoers, who never
once to my knowledge has missed even
the Wednesday evening service, has
taken the matter very cool1y. When
ever I refer to the disappearance of the
boys or the affection of the Freeman
family, he says in formal manner, as
if he were answering the responses, 1T
is indeed a thousand pities. l blazed
out on him on the last occasion, which