The Washington times., 1906-01-21

upon me from the window as he shook
my hand. Il have your address. Drive
on Williams.
/ might have been an old and trust
ed friend from the warmth of his
manner Yet as The carriage rolled
away / noticed that he raised the little
fiap at the back to see that / didn't
try 10 follow him
The pacl.,J arrived next morning.
The notes } slowed away in an inside
pocket the typewrltten instructions
We're unsigned and undated.
According to them Craig was mem
her of gang ID" employed on the con-
Wet farm. in draining and inclosing a
portion of moor by Il stream known
as the Black brook Above the stream
rose small hill. on which was an
ancient caiTn and stone circle that in
my character as student would offer
an excuse for my presence.
Though communication with Craig
could not be regularly established. he
knew that an attempt was in prepaTa-
ton. The sight of a man in q white
waterproof lettering on the Cairn hill
would be his signal that all was ready.
Sudden foEs We're frequent upon the
moor. and when they came while the
conViCts We're at work i'm the fields
the chance of escape was excellent:
for the authorities did not chain their
men. and the waTders rarely used their
rifles. They trusted to the huge moors
upon which men who escaped were
easily retaken, half dead from fatigue
and starvation.
Craig would make "a rush for the
cairn hill. From thence il was my
duty 70 convey him 10 Torquay thirty
miles away on the coast. Once there
he would know where to go. and my
responsibility ended. A letter TO the
TorGuay postofice, under the name OF
W. Siade, would be forwarded to the
writer If ] required further assistance.
or had any questions of real import
anCe.
That was all, but il was enough for
me Here was scheme into which
/ could put my heart There was no
low-down swindling, no dirty worl,
about IL. / felt as gay as a school
boy on for a holiday
And so in three day $ time that rag
sed rascal Jack Henderson. dlsap-
peared from London, and the we'll
dressed Mr.. Abel Kingsley. vaguely
described i'm the visitors book of the
Priucetown Arms as OF Memphis
University L. :. A. was sitting on
The cairn hn above the great prison
that held Julian Craig
To tie far horizon there stretched
the melancholy moOrs. deserted
wastes Of Tushy marshes ana stunted
heather, broken here and there by
outcrops of granite. that crowned the
rolling ground like the ruins OF a
hundred feudal castles. For Dart
moor is a huge granite tableIand,
and on its barren surface no corn
viii grow nor tree flourish.
Beneath the rampant Of its contain
ing hills lies the garden of Devon. a
land OF orchards and pleasant woods
Of cornfelds and pasture farms; but
the moors have defed the farmer
and remain the same sad wilderness
that prehistoric man inhabited 4.oOl
years ago. You can see where he
built his hut circles. and set up his
great stone avenues To the honor oi
deaG chieftaiEs.
Is was an UHcanny sort of place al
together, and 1 shivered as / sat in
that lonely cemetery of the forgotten
dead
The huge prison was built on the op-
pOsitc slope of the shallow valley, and
The farm which the convict had won
field by field stretched down from its
walls To a brook al the foot of the
cairn hill where ] was. On the fur
Their edge of the brook "a gang was
at work inClOsing some new ground
and through nv glasses / soon made
out the man l was after The last
time / had seen him was on his own
coach at Ascot. with the girls buzzing
round him like wasps after sugar. and
there he was digging trenches with q
spade. It's a funny world!
About twenty men were i'm the gang
on the outer side couple of warders
strolled up ana down with rifles un-
der their arms. There was nothing but
a low hedge TO stop the conv:cts il
they knocked down the guards viii
their spades ard make a run for it
But when | looked back across IN,
wastes of the moor I understood. II
a city a man may vanish in a crowd
but AT Dartmoor ne must tramp &
dozen miles before he can find ever
a bush To hide him. In clear weather
the mounted wardCrs Of the pursui
would ride him down in half an hour.
The PrincetOWn Arms a gray, wealth
er-beaten square of granite. was .
pleasant country inn standing near In,
center Of the village 1t was too earl,
in the year for tourists. Indeed as
discovered. there was only one maj
besides myself staying In the house,
Mr. Thomas Hearne, whose address ii
the visitors book was briefly LondOl
When came down 10 Dime
that night / found him alread
seated at a little table with my knit
and fork laid opposite. l wasn't anX
ious 10 make new acquaintances. but
couldn't very well ask them to lay an
other table for my benefit. So
took my chair, and wished him goo
evening as politely as possible.
He was a small, gray-bearded man
over sixty. as I reclzoned, and he seem
ed as disinclined for conversation a
ever I was. For that I thanked m
luck, and worked through the Dime
with my brains busy with one pla
after another. IL was just as coffe
was served that he asked the questio
which startled me.
The landlord tells me you are study
ing the stone remains on the moor,
he said. ''Is il your opinion that they I
Neolithic or Druidical?'
IanIfC,J -,