The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-05-22
| The MISSING MAN a. ..:!!!!!:!! HITCH

Nothing, only that 1 need not fear
that she would do anything imprudent."
mo, she will not, you may be sure
of that" said Mr.. Hamilton, and he
walked along silently and thoughtful
ly to the office.
Constance did not intend to be i'm
prudent but she did mean to see Pri-
mus Edes and ask him a few ques-
lions. Accordingly she went over about
o'clock and made her errand known
to Mrs. Fry, who ushered her into
the sick room, remaining there her.
self as Constance requested.
Constance" he cried, so you did
come again. I did not hope to see
you till tomorrow
Il want to ask you few questions.
came for that" said she, quietly.
ASK me anything"
You say you are Vane Hamilton.
Tell me, then, why you went away
every year in May"
'I will. I feel now that 1 ought
to have done so before. But 1 shrank
from it, fancying that you would think
my quest foolish one"
Quest? %
Yves, a sacred quest. You remem-
Der my mother, Constance,-a sad, del
icate woman who seldom smiled; but
you never knew the reason of her
sadness, nor did /, till a short time
before she died. Then she told me.
She had three children, a girl and
two sons, who were twins My sister
died in childhood, and my brother, also,
as l supposed; but she, it seems, al
ways doubted it. AS you know, Con-
stance, l was one of the twins, and
the other was stolen. My parents, who
were very wealthy at that time, liv-
ed in Elmira, New York The nurse,
VINO had charge of us, took our car
riage, which was a double one, to the
park, one day, as usual. There she
left us, as servants will, to gossip with
other girls, and when she returned
my brother was nowhere to be seen.
OF course, the woman was filled with
grlef and fear, and she searched a
long time, herself, before summoning
aid, fearing the displeasure of her en-
ployerS. But the child could not be
found. My mother was nearly frantic
for she had set her heart on her two
remaining children after her little
daughter died, and it seemed for a
long time as if she would be insane.
The search was wide and thorough.
Everything was done to find him that
ample means and anxious hearts could
devise, and at last it was believed that
he was dead, or had been carried from
the country. My father lost the larger
part of his property about this time.
Indeed, the long search had been a
heavy drain upon it, and since it had
long been decided that no more could
be done, he took considerable pains to
impress upon my mothers mind the
belief that the child was dead. There
were many facts that tended to-
ward it, and my father him
self actually believed that Victor
died after being stolen, and
before the kidnapper felt that it would
be safe to make any move towards
securing reward for his return.
This was what he believed, and as
1 have said he had great reason for
thinking so, many facts pointing to 1t;
facts which l will not explain now. In
deed, the case much resembled that
of Charlie Ross, which occurred a good
many years later. But my mother did
not agree with this explanation,
though she would have been glad to
have had her hearts questioning set
at rest, if possible, even in this way.
Far better to be dead, she thought,
than in the hands of wicked men!
When she was about to die she
called me to her bed and asked me
if 1 would try faithfully to find my
brother. 1 understood then for the
first time her lifelong sorrow. Take
two weeks of every year in May, the
month of his loss to me, and seek for
him. You will then have fifty weeks
left for yourself she said; will you
promise? Though I felt the utility of
such a search, though 1 felt that in
her healthy lifetime she would never
have exacted it, 1 could not refuse
such request at such time. l prom
ised. Then she took ring from her
finger and gave it to me, in trust, for
him should 1 ever find him. 1 found
the words engraved inside the ring,
and always carried it with me when
l went on my search.
las you may suppose, 1 did not ex-
perience any hope myself that should
find my brother. even if he were liv-
ing. The probability of his having
different name amounted to certainty,
I considered; and then, too, he, doubt
less, would be ignorant of his parent
age, and might bear very little resem-