At home, in his cabin, Clark unfolded the startling drawing for the fourteenth time that day and scratched his head. There, on the paper before him, was a childish scrawl of a little boy and a little girl. Above them stood a figure of a girl but what was most remarkable was what was in the corner of the picture, at the top. It was a castle. Many children draw castles in the sky, but this was HIS castle….the one that he was forced to sell back in Germany when he had to raise the money for the ransom? The unique, pentagonal design was unmistakable. “What do you make of this, Bob?” The constable could offer only two solutions. The first was that William had an extraordinary memory of a castle he had last seen on the terrible night that he was stolen from it. To be able to duplicate, in that much detail, something that was remembered at the age of barely two years old seemed far fetched, to say the least. The other possibility (and this seemed almost as absurd) was that William had seen and known this castle much more recently. He had included it in his drawing of himself, as though it were an important part of his life. And who was the other girl in the picture? It seemed clear that, if Gretyl was to be found, William was the road map. But first, they would have to communicate with him.

That night, Clark decided that William would have to learn some important new words. He settled himself into his armchair, opened a book of fairy tales and called out, “Who would like a story?”….”une histoire,” he added, for William’s benefit. Suddenly children swarmed the room and vied for space on his knee. Oh, how they LOVED to hear stories from their father. Betsy and Sandy, being a little older (and a LOT more sophisticated!) pretended to busy themselves in the next room, while keeping an ear or two open to hear the familiar tales. This one, though, was one they had never heard. Clark began, “Once upon a time, in a CHATEAU in Germany…”. William looked up when he said that word, “Chateau”, he repeated. “Yes, William, Chateau means ‘Castle’”. ..there lived a little boy named, “William”, and his sister…. “Gretyl!” answered William. Clark’s heartbeat quickened. William pointed to the picture and said, “Castle…home”. “William, where is Gretyl?” Clark ventured in a soft whisper. William gazed up at his Father in confusion trying to speak the words that wouldn’t come. In their place were tears.