Connecticut western news., 1922-11-30

He strengthened; he was very pale. "WOuld coins that my father had in his pocket all have been more than " city years Old?"
 SAe ran and Lent beside him over the coins. ''Twenty years !" she re- peated. She was making out the dates of the coins now herself; the markings were. eroded, nearly gone in some in- stances, but in every case enough re- mained to make plain the date. "Eighteen-ninety - 1894 - 1SS9," she queerly. What does 1t mean?" she whispered.
 He turned over and re-eXamined the articles with hands suddenly steady ing. There are two sets of things here," he concluded. "The mufier and paper of directions-they be- longed to my father. The other things it isn't six months or less than six months that they've lain in sand and water to become worn like this; it's twenty years. My father can't have had these. things; they were some where else, or some /one else had them. He wrote his directions to that per- son-after June twelfth, he said, so 1t was before June twelfth he wrote 1t: but we can't tell how long before. It might have been in February, when he disappeared; 1t might have been any time after that. But if the directions were written so long ago, why weren't the things. sent to you before thisf
  then? Did we have to wait to get them? Or-was 1t the instructions to send them that he didn't have2 Or, if he had the instructions, was he wait ing to receive word when they were to be sent? You thought these things proved my father was dead. I think they prove he is alivel Oh, we must think this out p
 He paced up and down the room she sank into chair, watching him. '"The first thing that we must do," he said suddenly, "is to find out about the watch. What is the phone number of the telegraph officer"
 She told hhn, and he went out to the telephone; she sprang up to follow him, but checked herself and merely waited until he came back.
 ''Pve wired to Buffalo," he an- nounced. "The Merchants exchange, If 1t Is still in existence, must have a record of the presentation of the watch"
 "Then you'll stay here with us until an answer comes?"
 If we get reply by tomorrow morn- ing; I'll wait till then. If not, I'll ask you to forward 1t to me. I must see about the trains and get back to Frank fort. can cross by boat from there to Manitowoc-that will be quickest. We must begin there, by trying to find out who sent the package"
 She helped him put the mufrler and the other articles into the box; she no- ticed that the wedding ring was no longer with them. He had taken that, then; it had meant to him all that she had known 1t must mean. |.
 In the morning she was up very early; but Alan, the servants told her, had risen before she had and had gone out. The morning, after the cool north ern night, was chill. She slipped a sweater on and went out on the veran- da, looking about for him. An rides cent haze shrouded the hills and the bay; in it she heard a ships bell strike twice; then another struck twice-then aaother-and another-and another. The haze thinned as the sun grew warmer, showing the placid water of the bay on which the ships stood dou- ble. She saw Alan returning. and knowing from the direction from which he came that he must have been to the telegraph office, she ran to meet him.
 "Was there an answer2" she inquired eagerly.
 He took a yellow telegraph sheet from his pocket and held 1t for her to read.
 Watch presented Captain Caleb Stafford, master of propeller freighter Marvin Halch for rescue of crew and passengers of sinking steamer Winne- bago off Long point, Lake Erie"
 She was breathing quickly in her ex- citement. "Caleb Stafford !" she ex- claimed. "Why. that was Captain Staf- ford Of Stafford and RamsdeIl They owned the Miwaka!"
 "Yes," Alan said.'
 A great change had come over him since last night; he was under emotion so strong that he seemed scarcely to dare speak lest 1t master him-a leap ing, exultant impulse 1t was, which he fought to keep down.
 "What is 1t, Alan2" she asked. What Is 1t about the Miwaka? You said you'd found some reference to 1t in Uncle Benny's house. What was 1t? What did you find there?"
 "The man" Alan swallowed and steadied himself and repeated-"the man met in the house that night mentioned 1t. He seemed to think was a ghost that had haunted MT. Cor Eet-the ghost from the Miwaka; at least he shouted out to me that couldn't save the Miwaka l"
 Save the Miwaka What do you