Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-13
CHAPTER xxx.
HOME AGAIN FREEMAN'S MAR
 RATIYE CONFINED.

CHAPTER xxx.
 HOME AGAIN EDWARD FREEMAN'S MAR RATIvE CONTINUED.
 One morning I was awakened by a loud noise of humping and the swish swash of rushing water. l knew the sig nificance of this. There was wild wealth CT abroad, and we here, though far from the outer turmoil, were experiencing the effects. Jack was still asleep. 1 got up, fed the fire with fresh timber and sat on the edge of the pool contem- plating the agitation of the dark water and listening to the strange and rather horrible noises which it made echOing in the long, high and winding cave be- hind me, the mouth of which opened upon this pool. All our seals were here in TOW. No Good was among them, with his caudal, or crural, ornament hanging down gracefully behind him and occasionally whirled about by the water. We are prisoners here now" said to myself. for it would be decided ly dangerous to attempt the tunnel with the water rushing through it at this rate.
 After awhile Jack awoke, and when we had breakfasted and played with our friends we went again at our work. We had now three good, movable pieces of timber, winch only needed to be cut smooth at each end so that one might stand on the top of another, to be ready for the escalading of Curry's Window. All that day the agitation of the water continued and grew momentarily more violent. Had we wished to do so it would have been utterly impossible for us to traverse the tunnel. In the after noon the mOnOtony was interrupted somewhat by the reappearance of No Good minus his appendage. The blad der was gone. That being so, we per ceived how desirable it was that we should return to the big cavern as soon as possible. Our bladder might be pick ed up at any moment; consequently at any moment search party might de- scend into the big cavern. What would they think if they did not find us there? They would never suspect the existence of this second cave, the avenue to which was at all times flooded. It was on that very evening that MT. Watkins and his nephews picked up our letter. As it was 
 condition of the water to attempt the tunnel, we quietly worked on at the big beam and spent the day smoothing the ends of those pieces which we had sep arated. After a week or ten days the outer storm had evidently abated, but the agitation of the water was still too great to permit us to get through the tunnel. At last, one morning, when we awoke, we found that the agitation had almost subsided This day we re- solved to bring our logs through. We rolled one of them to the waters edge, and having made it fast with a cord gently pushed it into the water. We feared that it might sink. in which case we intended to partly buoy it up by turning our sheepskin into bladder and fastening it to the log. The log, how ever swan, and our next task was to cause it to sink just sufficiently to come on a level with the mouth of that sub marine tunnel, so that we might draw it through into the great cavern. This task we accomplished by tying to it small stones as sinkers. To make long story short, we succeeded that day in bringing all our short logs through and rolled them up upon the shore of the seals pool in the great cavern, but it was a very laboIious job.
 About half that work was accom- plished when we made an important discovery-viz, that a search party had been in the cave during the time that we were weather bound. In our pro- vision cranny found the hamper of sandwiches and the flask of brandy. I recognized at once MT. Watkins flask We did not know till afterward that he and his men had been twice in the cave, once the day after the disappearance of No Goods appendage and asecond time three days subsequently,. Though we thought it quite possible that they might visit it again, we did not relax our ex- ertions. Next day we rolled the logs to Curry's Window. Though we rolled | them for greater convenience, we had | taken care to make most of them light enough to be raised by our united strength and some light enough to be raised by one of us alone, the reason of which will be apparent presently. The | sandwiches, some of ham and some of beef, were very welcome, though the bread was rather stale. The brandy, too, though neither of us cared in.the least for strong drink, was in our pres ent exhausted condition very welcome. In short, we ate, drank and were merry that night, and sang songs, too, making the echoes ring. We certainly did not drink too much brandy and water, at least hope not. It was the near ap- | proach of liberty which made us so fes- tive, though no doubt the strong drink, to which we were almost quite unac- customed, somewhat contributed. Jack had not smoked since joined him. He had about an inch of Limerick twist still left, which he often brought out and gazed at affectionately, but did not use. He said he was reserving it till some time when he might really need the stimulus of tobacco. was a nonsmoker myself then. Would that could say the same nowl Indeed have a wretched pipe in my mouth as I | write these lines.
 We rose next morning early and break lasted in high spirits. This day we said that we would be free. We came to Curry's Window. There, on the high est of the powder stones, which we had already heaped there, we set up one of our big logs, making it quite firm about the base by the insertion and even the | ramming home of eeaweed. We had to