Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-04-27
EASTBROOK CAVE.
The Story of Harvey Duff's Midnight
Adventure.
TFrom The Lewiston JournaLI

1t is not absolutely necessary for the
thousands of miles away from home to
explore the mysteries of nature in her
underground caverns, for our own State
has many such, and none the less wonder
full of the lot is located not a stones
throw from the highway, and on the
line dividing the towns of Eastbrook
and Waltham. This cave has never
been thoroughly explored, although its
existence has been known for more than
seventy years, and marvellous are the
stories related by some of the old fore
fathers of adventures in the poky holes
beneath the bowels of the hill
The most widely diffused legend in
connection with this cave is that some
where in its confines lies buried the bulk
of Capt. Kidd's treasures, the great pot of
melted gold and chests of gems that he
wrested from the men of peace and
wealth. Many search party during
the past two generations has ventured
through the BUSH covered mouth of this
cave, to return a few hours afterward con-
fused and sometimes frightened, but
never with even the memory of a sight
of the treasure pot.
And yet it is not the stories of their
trials nor of their decisions that make the
most entertaining narratives, but the story
of the young man who feared neither
darkness nor superstitious omens, and who
went down into the depths of the cave
alone and at night, and came back with
the evidences of his excursion and I'M
harmed, just for the sake of cheap jack
knife
This young man, Harvey Duff, it is said,
explored more Of the cave than any man
known, but how he found his way out
even he never knew. All he knew was
that he CROPPED along in darkness until he
found the skull of the wolf in the great
chamber, and with this again he CROPPED
along till puff of air told him that he
was near the opening, and he crawled out,
falling into a stream, which told him that
he had made an exit not where he had en-
tered. For a mile or two he wandered,
wet and confused, through the woods, and
at last recognized the buildings of a
neighbor, four miles away from the place
where he entered the cave.
This was seventy years ago, and Harvey
Duff was a hired boy in the only house on
Cave Hill. The country was heavily
wooded then, and houses and turnpiked
roads were few and far between. There
were three men in the party who sat at
the fireplace in the house on Cave Hill
that night. Some of them had been en-
gagged with an engineering party camped
near by. One OF the men was the owner
of two cheap jack knives, but in those
days even cheap jack Knives were scarce.
The conversation was about the curious
cave. Some of the men had that day
stumbled across it, and had wormed their
way through the opening into the inner
chamber. Then they secured some fagots,
and explored it until they came to a heap
of what looked like VOLTS bones in a
chamber. The lights had begun to grow
weak, and the men retired. And now
they We're discussing the wonder, while
one OF them Whitfield.
SAY, Wilson, said Harvey Duff, cant
| buy that other knife from you?'
NO, you can't. Don't you know a
knife cuts friendship?''
"Oh, bosh with your supersttions, said
Duff.
Then The talk Went Oh about the lone
lines, OF a subterranean cavern, and of the
AeIrd feeling that POSSESSES all who md
themselye, under ground.
"4}et you wouldn't dare to go up there
now" said one.
"I'u acknowledge | wouldn't banker
for the trip, was the reply.
Pooh! said young Duf, II wouldn't
be afraid to 90 down and walk through
that cave al midnight and alone"
Hear the boy" said the owner of the
,wo jack knives.
Big noise. Little sand, said the
other.
Tell you what" said Duff, you give
walk that cave tonight
But how'll we know you do it?H asked
the man.
you say there's VOLTS skull in the
big chamber?'
Yes"
"Well, say, if l come back with that
VOLTS skull, is the knife mire?n
Sure, boy, but don't venture it; you can
never do it,
But Harvey Duff wanted that jack
knife. He left the house shortly before
midnight, taking few matches with him.
The Nyaita1 rr
more, and then, growing alarmed, they
started in pursuit of young Duff. They
reached the mouth of the cave and stood
for long while before they could muster
up courage to venture in. Finally, one of
them squeezed through and struck a
match. The other followed. Both stood
awhile in the dark corridor and yelled,
but the only response to their calls was a
wild, rumbling noise like the roar of a
Thar0unbI,y fri,