The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-03
Bv CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

Cyrus TOwnSend%BTOdy
 didn't come squarely down to the wa ter's edge attrght angles to the wall, but lay as 1t were, parallel to a niche within the wall so that they were somewhat sheltered from observation from the sea.
 We broke upon them suddenly, there fore. Mistress4 Lucy clutched my arm.
 ''The giant staEwayr' she cried in amazement.
 '.It is indeed,' Il said, 'sjust as it was set forth in the parchment"
 And the great stone faces,'' she add ed in a voice inywhich there was touch of awe
 "'Let us go nearer and ascend the stairs,'' I said,s taking her hand and leading the way, and sheswas so pre- occupied that she did notsnotice. I observed as we. approached the stairs that thef rock had been worn smooth by the wind and weather, or maybe by the passing of amany feet and were quite practicabIe4for ascent. The angle at which they rose was steep too.
 The ascent was <easy enough for me, but hard for her., and several times I made bold to lift her up the higher steps, which she suffered without com blaming. She told me long afterward that my manner toward her then and thereafter had been perfect. | When we at last reached the top before us lay a broad pathway rudely paved with the same hard stone. This road led straight into the interior of the island of which we could see as yet nothing, because the wall here abouts was covered with dense, lux urious vegetation. Progress was difn- cult even in the pathway. It would have been impossible in some places but for my heavy cutlass with which l I cut path where the place had be- | come overgrown by trees and bushes | which had forced their way through i the cracks, overturning and breaking the heavy fagstones- and blocking up 1 the path, which it was evident had not been traversed for generations, l perhaps not since the old buccaneer l himself had walked along it beneath | the spreading trees.
 1 For perhaps a mile we pursued our 1 Journey across the top of the wall, 1 winding in and out among the trees through the jungle, the path evidently seeking the most level direction, for i the top of the wall was very much broken and irregular.
 At last we came to an open spot on 1 the inner edge overlooking the whole 1 island, and before us lay such a pie | ture as few eyes, at least of our race, | had ever looked upon. The wall ended l abruptly and fell on the inner or land ward side as precipitously as it rose outwardIy and to seaward. Before us | lay most entrancing valley, perhaps 1 three or four miles across and maybe l half as long again in the other dfrec- | tion and which was walled about on every hand. It was sunk beneath this wall crest for perhaps 100 feet or more. i In the center of the valley the land 1 rose little higher than the island wall in very considerable hill, tree crowned on the slopes, but largely bare on the crest. Through the valley ran a brook, which ended in a little lake, l which I suspected had some subter- 1 ranean connection with the ocean. As | far as we could see-and the whole circuit of the island was now clearly
 visible to us-the inclosing wall was unbroken. The valley was filled with clusters of trees and alternating stretches of grassy meadow. l We should have been hard put to it | to descend the wall to the valley were | 1t not for the fact that the same peo- l pie who built the stairs that gave ac- cess to the wall from the sea had built | a similar flight which led to the valley. | Be1Ore we 6SSaYod the >QoScenC or the ! Ktairs we drank our fill of the beauty l and mysterious charm of it all. In deed, there was no sound that came to us except the twfttering of the birds, of which there were many, brilliantly l plunged, hittering in the trees. All l else was still, lonely, deserted, oppres- | B1Ye1y so in fact
 What think you of this?'' My lady
 broke the silence. ''Is @t not like the l crater of a volcano?''
 "NO,' said I ''these are coral rocks,
 and there is no sign of lava about
 them, yet it has somewhat of the ap-
 pearance, especially that fattened hil-
 lock in the center"
 I have siAce talked with many men
 and studied the writings of the most 1 learned geolOgists. They have fan
 cied that perhaps the rocky projection
 in the middle of the valley, where we 1 saw the great altar of sacrifice with it's 4 attendant idols later on, was the orig 1 inaI island, which was once surround | ed by coral reef, which was now be- l come a wall, and that some great up
 heavaI had lifted the whole up out of 1 the water in ages gone by and that
 the barrier reef over which we had
 passed was the second attempt of the ] busy little insects to surround the fs~