The Irish standard., 1915-05-29

! u I
Harry came rushing into my office hold
ing a pigeon IN his hand.
something was tightly wrapped. saw
it was linen laced with cord very tight
along the shank between the birds claw
and its knee. My hands SO trembled
with excitement that cut myself, and
badly, before cut that cord. When l
unwound the linen and laid it out upon
the table, found upon it various stains
of red. This linen had certainly been
written upon originally, but the rain
had penetrated, and melting the red ink,
blood no Doubt. had converted the char
acters into mere blotclles and stains.
They were quite illrgihle. | sent the
boys away and remained alone for a
long time, studying the rcd daubs and
splasllcs--you can imagine in what a
state of mind. This rag of linen held
the secret which l verify believe l
would have given all my worldly goods
to master. turned it this way and
that, for there was nothing to indicate
which side should hu held uppermost
Then ut last 1t seemed to me that in one
place ] saw W, after which a mere
blotch of red color representing appar-
emily the rest of word and at the end of
it another W. called my wife to my as
sistancc. She was sure of the first W, but
not of the second. Curiously enough. both
tho boys were sure of the second, but not
of the first. was sure Of both myself.
Asyou know, am always sulc of every
thing that jumps with my expccta-
tons and hopes. You are phlegmatic
fellow yourself, Harry, man of sheeri
intellect, but think that even you, if|
you had been through these Freeman
experiences, lasting now for more than
five months, with the eyes of the whole
country upon you, you might have been
perhaps as much excited as | was this
evening. | ran to the shelf for myI
Webster s dictionary. Doyou remember
how, when we were sitting here together
last summer after dinner smoking and
thinking of nothing, alittle girl appeared
at tho door and said:
Mrs. Romans compliments, sir,
and would you lend her tho loan of
your dictionary, for she's writing let
teri"
And how you replied:
Mr. Watkins compliments to Mrs.
Holman, and tell her that he has not
read it himself yet
Well, it was tho same dictionary and
a great deal of trouble had to get ii
out of Mrs. HOman's clutches.
turned to tho letter w and ran myl
ego down all tho words beginning with
that letter in quest of those which end
ed with the same. Willow would suit
so would window. There were others
such us wallow, etc, but rejected
them. l rang for my orderly and had
him make Inquiries among the people,
and learn whether there was any place.
in this neighborhood called by nalneI
in which willow or window occurred
Now, had not tho least reason for sup
posing that even if my assumption were
correct the word which began and end,
ed with Il W was the name of place.
1t might be a verb. 1t might be any
thing, but nevertheless ut once Jumped
to the conclusion that it was the name
L
brothers. -
had hardly uttered my directions
when both my nephews cried out at
once:
why, Uncle Sam, there's Curry's
Window" And Harry, who takes more
liberties with mo than tho other, gave
mo to understand that we were all duff
fers not to have searched Curry's Win
dow before.
As had not the least notion of what
Cnrry's Window was. they proceeded
to cnlighten me. Curry's Window, they
said, was II little black square hole high
mp in the face of the smooth sheer cliff
which extended from DhuCorrig to my
COOS. In short, Curry's Window was
tho hole out of which the piast in Gro
hoor-beg's story had appeared when she
devOurcd the two fishermen.
This was a curious coincidence, and
indeed, as Harry suggested, it was sin
g,llar thing that we should have ex-
plorcd tho caves in distant islands, vet
not have explored this cavity which
was near DhuC orrig. But then howl
could the boys have got thither, for therd
is no climbing on that cliff, which starts
sheer out of the sea and is accessible
neither by land nor water? l brooded
over this all the night, and the more II
thought about it the more absurd did
it seem that the brothers should be i'm
INJURED there. 1t was just possible of
course that the brothers, having fallen
into the sea, might have been sucked
under by current and whirled into|
some cavern of which Curry Is Window
was another aperture. The theory was
just imaginable, but no more. How
ever, as we had tried to work out so
many absurd theories, thought might
as we'll work out this absurd theory, too.
as do nothing.
Accordingly laid my plans that
night, and next day had one of my men
lowered from the top of the cliff by
rope. In order to signal to those who
held the rope went out in a boat rowed
by the coast guards, who have been ex-
tIemelv belnful to me in all this hnsi-
(To be Continued