As The Ancient One woke in the morning, he was at peace. The load of negative energy that had built up inside of him had been used up in the hunt. But he knew as he went about his daily tasks, things were happening all over the country.
A sheriff's patrol car, spotting the vehicle parked by the edge of the quarry had made its way to it and found the little girl wrapped in the blanket. When the sheriff and further assistance arrived, the little girl's fantastic story bewildered everyone. The car belonged to one of the community's leading citizens...a high school science teacher well known for his charity work, and the leader of one of the community's boy scout troops! And these tales of an angel! None the less, the sheriff ordered the fire department to bring up pumps to have the quarry drained. It was late afternoon before the water reached the level of the murk in the quarry bottom. What they found there horrified them; the body of the teacher covered in a tangle of younger bodies that were wrapped around his arms and legs, over his chest, pinning him down. The muck could not be walked on, so a fireman hanging from a helicopter descended time and time again into the quarry until finally the last body was brought up.
"This doesn't make sense!" said the coroner. "It doesn't make sense at all! If each of these children were weighted down like he intended with her, they should be at the bottom of the muck. Look at these ropes...nylon. Even in that acidic water it would last forever, but it looks like it's been pulled apart with such force that the nylon melted and fused. One thing, the water perfectly preserved their bodies; no bacteria. They're mummified. Autopsies should tell a lot."
"I'd better get a search warrant," said the sheriff, "and search his house."
They literally had to tear the house apart until they found the secret room hidden in the basement where the teacher had kept the children chained to a bed with a few books and paper and crayons to keep them amused. There were boxes full of their drawings, and pitiful little notes; letters to their mothers and fathers that had never been sent, asking why they have left them with this awful man.
The papers were soon filled with the story. Most of the children were identified and their bodies returned home, but as far as the newspapers were concerned, and the t.v. the sheriff did not mention the strange facts of the case, and the little girl's story about the Angel were kept secret.
"Some traveller," said the sheriff, "probably sleeping up there, came to the little girl's rescue, and in the struggle pushed her tormentor over the cliff. To such a little girl her rescuer certainly might seem to be a furry angel with wings. In her state of mind she might imagine anything!"