The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-20


 of herself How fresh the green water line looks! She'll be fast in moderate weather; a fair thousand tons. per haps."
 "A close guess"
 'T understand she belongs to my employer. I hope he takes the sea soon I suppose you know that l have knocked about some as a sailor"
 ''That will. help you into the good graces of the admiral"
 The carriage was at the hotel when they re+-rned They bundled in their traps. and drove away.
 The. little man now dropped into the railway station and stuck his head into the ticket aperture. The agent who was seated before the telegraph keys, looked up-
 ''No tickets before half past 10. sir.''
 'T am not wanting ticket. l wish to know if I can send a cable from here?
 "A cabIe7 Sure. Where eo2"
 Paris"
 "Yes. sir. telegraph it to the cable office in New. York. and they do the rest Here are some blanks"
 The other wrote some hieroglyphics. which made the address impossible to decipher, save that 1t was directed mainly to Paris. The body of the cabIegram contained a single world The writer paid the toll, and went away.
 "Now, what would you think Of thatP'. murmured the operator, scratching his head in perpIex1ty. Aa. @I, so it's all the same to me: Butter dies.. and all the rest in French. Next time irn be bugs. All rights here goesf"
 
 The house at the top of the hill had two names. It had once been called the Watch Tower for reasons but vaguely known by the present generation of vil- lagers. Today it was generally styled The Pines Yet even this had fallen into disuse save on the occupants letter paper. When any one asked where Rear Admiral Killigrew lived he was directed to ''the big white house at the top O the hill"
 The Killigrews had not been born and bred there. Its builder had been a friend of King George-that is. his sympathies had been with taxation without representation. One day he sold the manor cheap. His reasons were sufficient. It then became the property of a wealthy trader. who died in it. This was in 1909. His heirs. living and preferring to live in Philadelphia. put up a sign and. being of careful disposition. kept the place in excellent repair.
 In the year 1916 it passed into the hands of Frenchman. and during his day the villagers called the house the Watch Tower. for the Frenchman was always on the high balcony. tele scope in hand. gazing seaward. No one knew his name. He dealt with the villagers through his servant, who could speak English, himself profess ing that he could not speak the lam guage. He was a recluse. almost hermit At odd times brig would be seen dropping anchor in the ofhng. She was always from across the wa ter. from the old country. as villagers to this day insist upon calling Europe. The manor during these peaceful In- vasions showed signs of life. Men from the brig went up to the big white house and remained there for a week or a month. And they were lean men. battle scared and fierce of eye. some with armless sleeves. some with stin legs. some twisted with rheumatism. All spoke French and spat whenever they saw the perfidious flag of old England. This was not marked against them as a demerit. for the war of 1872 was yet smoking here and there along the great lakes. Suddenly they would up and away. and the manor would resume it's repellent aloofness Each time they returned their number was diminished Old nRe had sue ceeded war as a harvester. In 1922 the mysterious old recIuse surren- dered the ghost. His heirs. Ignored and hated by him for their afiliation with the Bourbons, sold it to the ia ther of the admiral
 The r1anor wasn't haunted. The hard headed longFhoremen and sailors who lived at the foot of the hll were practical people, to whom spirits were something mostly and generally put up in bottles. and emptied on sum- less. biustery dnys. Still. they wouldn't have been human if they had not done some romancing.
 There were a dozen yarns. each at variance with the other. First. the old ''monseer'' was a fugitive from France; everybody granted that Sec ond. that he had helped to cut of King Louis head; but nobody could prove that. Third. that he was a retired pirate; but retired pirates always wound up their days tn riotous living. so this theory died. Fourth. that he had been. a great soldier in the Ma polecuic wars. and this version had some basis. as the old mans face was sIasbed and cut, some of his fingers and he imped. Again. he had been banished from France for a share in the Hundred Days But. all told. nothing was proved conclusively. But the next generation partly for got and the present only indiherently that once upon a time a French emigre had lived and died up there All these things Fitzgerald and his comm nfou learned from thQ driver on