Connecticut western news., 1920-08-12

rN late afternoon of winters day, during the American Rev
 n olution, a rakish schooner and a majestic frigate anchored we'll inside Httle bay on the northeastern coast of England. A whaleboat drove shore wRrd, young officer scrambled up.
 me steer. cliffs and few minutes later mysterious stranger was transferred; aD the frigate's deck. He answered to nfDe name of "Mr. Gray' and was said so be merely pilot, but he was greet sd with surprising difference.
 For no ordinary man would these vessels have ventured so near that coast of sandbars and hidden rocks. The wind was mere ruffle of air. But xhe incessant mutter of the long, slow waves foretold that a storm E-- Brewing. Ever more fitfully and faint. ky blew the land-breeZe; the mutter oT she waters grew deeper. Only here eAS there did few stars twinkle betwcea rhe fast gathering ci0u1S. a ~as taase tn beat out to open sea, if it were nse aYen1 now too late. Men swarrcsA slsfe and hung up the yards; sails f1utterS1 oUtS the anchor was pulled in; the hgates gathered headway. Then the faint breeze died. The spread of can yas hung useless; the currents drove the. ship shoreward.
 With roar the wind came suddenly from the east. White spray dashed fr0m the bow. Yet the Pilot paced the guRrter-deck seemingly oblivious to danger. But open water was far ahead and suddenly from the forecas- tie came that dreaded cry, Breakers Breakers, dead ahead" The Pilot shook off his trance of thought. His orders thundered forth, sailors sprang hfther and thither at his bidding, the frigate swung about at his cry of
 Hold on everythingp Tortuously she picked her way through the twisting channels, in darkness amid the howl fngs of the great winds.
 She shivered from bow to stern as a hundred men loosed the huge main anil The jib was torn free with a crash like cannon's blast, but the big sail held and the frigate bowed like need in the wind. White foam showed dmly upon both sides, but the Pilot kept the ship. as by a miracle, within a narrow ribbon of dark water. He aook the wheel himself. Time and again the frigate seemed to have reeled free from peril; time and again She plunged anew toward a welter of white water. But she drove ever on and at last she rode the great waves of the open sea.
 Not the storm alone had these ships dared. They were American vessels, Mrking about an enemy's coast. This little bay had a peculiar fascination for two young lieutenants aboard, Ed ward Griffith and Richard Barnstable. Not far inland lived Colonel Howard, Tory who had fled from America when the colonists revolted. With him dwelt his. niece, Cecilia Howard, be- loved by Griffith, and his ward, Kath- erine Plowden, betrothed to Barnsta- bIe. In St. Ruth's abbey fingered, too, Christopher Dillon, a poor kinsmanj anxious to better his condition by we'd ding the wealthy Cecilia. Redcoats lent picturesQueness to the venerable abbey, for a small garrison under Captain Borroughcliffe had been sum- moned by the owner. For aught that men knew, John Paul Jones himself might be aboard these ships lowering nearby a ;4ls
 While reconnoitering the next night, "Mr. Gray" and Griffith were captured, but Borroughcliffe's drunkenness ena- bIed them to escape. Griffith was, how ever, retaken.
 The impetuous Barnstable. frettins offshore with his enormous coxswafz. Long Tom Coffin, had been nearly CIV of from his schooner byy ar Nr@lMA cutter, but he scrambled abeaS5 sadlF and the. drum beat to ssasta@. -