Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-05-17
Chapter w

What was to be done? When l again
! lowered a light the sound ceased, and
nothing was visible. An athlete could
have slipped down the bucket rope aud
possibly have ONE up again hand over
hand. But that was beyond my power,
even if I had found courage to make the
attempt and face the unknown. Certain
" I must go down there and find out the
secret of the villainous old ~smuggler, my
great-grnndfather. l felt sure that my
grandfather, always under The domina-
ton Of his father, was playing but an
accessory part in this dramatic business,
and l saw the necessity for acting with
caution to accomplish an investigation
successfully.
] closed the we'll, left the bucket hang
ing as l had found it. and Quilted me
cottage. 1t had struck me in taking a
last glance at the w%ashhouse that it was q
queer place for a well to be sunk, for
the house stood within a hundred yards of
the cliffs edge. To be sure a great mass
OF the cliff had fallen away, and at one
time it might have tapped a reservoir for
q stream percolating through the chalk.
Bnt now | accounted for its existence
there by a more satisfactory conclusion.
It was the secret way that was said to
have been used for communicating with
the caves on the shore. 1t was quite
possible that, invisible from the top, an
outlet at the bottom led laterally into the
choked caverns. That hypothesis ac-
counted for my seeing no one at the bot
tom Of the shaft when I let down the
light.
/ said nothing about the pitcher, or
the strange sounds, or my suspicious, to
ms y rr~n ~ n thu rho r xrrrn 1,.e II
feigned to be prodigiousiy curious with
respect to the bear.
young 'uns don't oughter ask ques-
tions," replied the old man, very well
pleased with my pretended simplicity,
"All they're got to do is 70 mind what's
said to 'em that's what father has been
hammering into me these last seventy
years. Now you're got to go over to
Bonport and find father, dye see? YOU'RE
got to go and leave word everywhere tkst
his son want him-being took queer.
And if he amt to be found at Bonpo-t
you can go over to Stringham and Shore
by and Puntness, and you might like
wise run over to Towerbridge. When
you're found him tell him you want a
hundred pounds. / daresay he'll bully you
at fust, but if he sees you gong of TO
old Fenwick, the land agent, he'll come
down with the money / warrant. Then
when you're got the money you can slip
your cable and run fur fureign parts at
once, because it amt right fcl young
'uns to be hanging about doing nothing.
Send father on to me. but you needn't
come back yourself. You clap op all sal
while the winds fair. Now that's What
you're got to do. But look here, il you
do not inc father by tomorrow morning,
you're got to come back here by noon, be-
cause there amt no one else to feed that
gallus bear, dye see?"
As o as / had finished my dinner I
went to a shiD's chandler, and bought s
coil of sixty fathoms OF stout hemp cord.
with the aid Of a lad + carried il to the
cottage on the cliff. / paid the boy, and
waited until he was well out Of sight be-
fore beginning my work.
I had to break into the house, for, as
It may well be imagined, my grandfather
had taken the keys from me on my re-
turn and slipned them Iinder his pillow.
The simplest way was to get through
a window SO having broken q pane o.
glass with a stone, l uufast5ned ne
catch and lifted the sash this done.
entrance was simple enough. I hauled
the cord Into the w~ashhouse, and. find
ing a hatchet, with a few vigorous strokes
/ split the cover of the we'll where it
was attached to the hinge and threw 1t
open. Then i unhitched the rope from
the cleat In the wall, setting the bucket
On the edge Of the well. ard firmly knot
ted the end to the cord ! had brought
With me. Tkis DONE, / put the hatchet
and i stout jackknife that l found on the
ah6a3 49, The bucket for NJ protection,