Devils Lake world. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1914-1915, 1914-08-27
An instrument
Of Providence
By WILLARD BRAKEMAN

was walking on the beach. watch
ing the waves come rolling in before
a gale and throwing up driftwood,
when a bottle was tossed at my feet.
I extracted a paper from 1t on which
was written:
We are going to pieces. Whoever gets
this go to Norman D. Carlisle and tell him
he will n my will in my desk in secret
drawer.
This was all-no date. no signature,
no address as to where Norman D.
Carlisle would be found.
That night l went TO bed thinking
about the message. Suppose it was
genuine. Somebody was enjoying prop
erty that belonged to another. But 1t
seemed to me that if it were genuine
the writer would have given at least
the city in which the person for whom
1t was intended lived. Ii the perpe-
traitor was doing the thing for sport or
to pass the time or because he hadn't
any more sense he would have given it.
And yet perhaps that's just what
he wouldn't do. He might not like to
p~articularize. On the other hand. Al
man who is about to be dumped INTO
a roaring ocean might leave someth .n=
out that he should have put in.
l was impelled to find Norman IL
Carlisle. I didn't wish to engage In
looking for a needle in a haystack. h",
I couldn't resist the feeling tina, u!
was my bounden duty to do so I'l,","
were then some s0,O0O.O0 0 people in
the United States alone. The nain"
was Anglo-Saxon, and the prrs,n
might be somewhere in the great r II
ish. countries. Nevertheless whe::
found that I couldn't let the ma;;r'
alone I went into it methodically. |
put a personal advertisement in one
newspaper in every city in the United
States whose inhabitants numbered
100000 or " for the said Norman u
Carlisle. I received several replies
signed Norman D. Carlisle, the middle
name usually differing. I wrote each
Of them, asking if he had lost a rela-
tive at sea, but they all answered in
the negative-that Is, so far as they
knew.
After six months l put in another
advertisement for Mr.. Carlisle and re-
ceived a reply from a Norman D. Car
Isle living in a town of about $4,000
people. HI had seen the ad. while in
the city where it had been inserted I
asked him If he had lost a relative at
sea, and he replied "No." I dropped
the matter so far as he was concern
ed, but later he wrote m that he was
a lawyer and had had a client who
had sailed from Rio de Janeiro in a
vessel that was catalogued among
missing ships.
After some correspondence he sent
me a check for expenses, and I went
to see him. He made an engagement
for me to meet a lady In his office,
and I was introduced to Miss Edith
Parks, twenty-one years old and come,
~. She appeared to be a lady, but
was shabbily dressed. I was Informed
that her uncle had been lost on the
missing vessel from Rio. I brought
out the paper I had found, which !
had carefully kept, and as soon as
she saw it she said she believed that
it had been written by her uncle. Some
of his letters were produced, and al
doubt was removed. The message
though scrawled hastily in a trembling
hand, was found to correspond witt
the uncle's writing.
I was then told that Miss Parks ha(
been brought up by this uncle, who
was wealthy, he being unmarried ant
without children. After he had beer
declared legally dead the courts hae
set about administering his estate an6
had already found forty persons VIII
were heirs at law.
Since Mr.. Weatherby, the man VIII
had been shipwrecked, had given Mis-
Parks to understand that she was to b.
his heir 1t was likely that the Will men
toned in the message gave his proper
ty to her. But the desk-where wa
it? MI. Weatherby's furniture hat
been sold a year before. Who hal
bought the desk? No one could tell.
Since I had gone 80 far in the matte
I did not propose to be beaten now
Advertising having awaited, I advel
tised for the person who had bough
a desk at a sale Of the effects of Cyru
Weatherby. In due time I received
reply from the purchaser. l wrote hir
that a niece Of the deceased wished t
redeem it and asked him to fix a price
He said he would sell it for 500. Mis-
Parks had no money to pay for 1t, s
l mailed the man a check for tn
amount The desk was sent to mi
and, taking it into a cellar, I choppe
it into kindling wood. Among the rut
bish lay the papers in a secret draw
er, and, taking this up, I found on
marked Last VIII and Testament 9
Cyrus Blake Weatherby." read
and found that he left all his propert
to his beloved niece Edith Parks.
That same evening I called on Mis-
Parks with the will that changed he
condition from poverty to wealth. sh
sat like a statue staring at the pape
as though she were looking through
rather than at it. I asked her whs
she was thinking about, but she di
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