New Britain herald., 1927-01-10


 Occasionally the sky was lit up with a flash of lightning. to be followed by q heavy roll of thunder
 The four peered into the fast gathering gloom ahead. A colossal statue, which but a moment before Lad stood out in plain relief on their left, was only dimly discernible now. Suddenly as they looked they saw a light flash into life at the end of the outStretched arm. It was the beacon torch of Liberty and the signal Glcam it sent across the waters touched for a fleeting instant the face of Mollie Elwcl.
 It picked out hcr features as if they had been cameo against dead black cloth. And Prof, who was watching. was startled.
 "Mollc." he exclaimed, frighten- ed. for the expression on her face had made him fearful. "Mollic, dear. don't take it so to heart. We'll find the boy
 His wife turned 10 him with a pa tient smile.>a smile so pitiful that the words choked in Prof Elwell's throat.
 As the four of them stepped from the boat at the foot of Battery Park the long threatening storm broke. For more than an hour they were held with other passengers in the n n n 1e, I n n waiting room. Finally the Iownpour lessened enough to enable then to reach the shelter of taNicab, and the search was on in earnest.
 CHAPTER NXXII
 The ride that followed Mollie FL well was to remember ever after ward as the weirdest experience of her life.
 It was a ride in which she rode the gamut of human emotions, it grip Of anxiety 10 the peak of cx- ultant hope and from hope down into the black depths of despair
 The rain had started coming down in torrents again. and the night was lit by occasional lightning flashes. The downpour against the windows Of the taNicab, mingled with the roar of thunder and of traffic, made a tremendous din and speech had 10 be pitched high if one wanted to make himself heard.
 Mike Hennegan looked for a long time at Molic as she sat beneath the light in the taXicab's ceiling. As he watched. their car turned into Broadway from Hanover Square. The muscles of his throat frightened and he began to think.
 Mike HcnncGan was nobody's fool. Here was q woman. he was saying 10 himself. who had stood just nbout all any woman in the world was capable of standing. First she had been told that her son was dead. Then she had been notified by H'e war department that he was a,ive, and she had found him a human wreck. Now--now even that wreck was lost. Mike began 10 talk.
 "You know. Prof." he began in n casual shout that would be heard above the chatter of the rain and the sounds of storm and traffic, T vas born in New York. It happened one morning when 1 was sill very young. It was on April Focrs day, and it was raining-raining gee loriousIy.
 My ol' man looked out the win dow an the rain stopped. Yep. Then he tied string to the or growlcr. put q dime in it an dropped it cut of the window.
 Then he called down the rain- pipe to Casey's bartender below. Two minutes later he got the office -a pull on the string that meant the bartender had heard him an had filled up the can.
 An then it began to rain again. Sufferin' Pat how it did rain. I hope, Prof, you get the moral of what I'm tellin' you. Casey's bartender swore it was the rain that flooded tho works, but when my ol man hauled up the can an saw what he'd caught he sWore that someone had taken advantage of him. You see. it was April Fools day, as I've been sayin'. That's why I'm always sad on April