I give you my word that, until I started to tramp the place with this child, I never had a notion that it was such a difficult job restoring a son to his parents. How kidnappers ever get caught is a mystery to me. I searched Marvis Bay like a bloodhound, but nobody came forward to claim the infant. You would have thought, from the lack of interest in him, that he was stopping there all by himself in a cottage of his own.
The narrator reflects on the unexpected challenges of returning a kidnapped child to their parents. Prior to this experience, they believed restoring a son was straightforward, but they quickly learned it was much more complex than anticipated. This difficulty raises a question about how kidnappers are eventually apprehended, given the obstacles involved in identifying and reclaiming a child.
The search for the infant in Marvis Bay was exhaustive, likening the narrator's efforts to that of a bloodhound on a trail. Despite their thorough investigation, no one came forward to claim the child, creating an impression that he was utterly alone in the world, as if he were living in a cottage by himself. This profound isolation underscores the neglect surrounding the child's abduction.
