Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-04-12
" Who spoke ?"

j." We can try it, said Theodore aloud
"What!' asked half dozen excited voices
in the same breath
i" I'll tell you what" continued Theodore
Z" while we've been staring our brains out at
the nasty Indians, old Mates been Minking.-
The plan is to take out the heavy props under
the great beams, and set the partitions and um-
Der on fire.
o What! and burn ourselues?" said the
Captain, .t....s.
" Not at all, Cap'n These cells across the
hail are all built Of solid stone and iron, you
remember and Of course are fire proof"
" Thar amt no time to lose, boys, said Ma
than, " eft yer thlnks best tn du it. I'm O. the
'pinron that that ar COMPOUNDED stone IL cum
smashin' down here soon, an abcout that time
we must hev the hull floor nightly weakened,
80 S tn let 'em down ker smash. -
" Land of Canaan exclaimed one
g Hurrah! for old Nathan" burst from
the lips Of duzen excited men.
g Ola Nate forever - said Theodore Doke,
fairly slapping the old hunter on the shoulder
as the glorious idea began to dawn clearly upon
his mind
" Come, boys, said Nathan, almost sternly,
6 don't crow till yer gifts out O. the woods =
The thanksgivin don't cum till arter the har-
vest. While we're talkn' nonsense and
CROWN like bls0es, we shl lose the very thing
we're crowin over. Come, half on yer boys
foller on this way, aud tother half foler Thode
that way and when yer gifts tn the end, let er
rip inter the dry partitions"
The party accordingly divided, and one divis-
ion, led and directed by old Nathan, and the
other by Theodore Doke, proceeded in opposite
directions, removing the great props from the
center beams, leaving them supported at the
ends by thin wood partitions; till they arrived
at opposite ends of the hall, when at signal
from Nathan, and an answer from the other
party that all was in readiness, ire was imme-
diately and simultaneously at each end commu-
nicated to the dry wood finish,
The entire range of rooms, with the excep-
tion of the ammunition room in the north end,
and kind of Office room into which they had
first fallen, were of the same size, and in every
respect alike A heavy wooden beam ran
through the center of each, on which rested tho
center Of the thick wooden sleepers. Every
alternate beam, on which rested the ends of the
sleepers, YVES supported by partition of joint
frame work covered with boards, and the whole
as dry as finder. The long partition against
the hall was built OF the same materials, with
the studs standing perpendicular under heavy
beam dropped to receive the ends Of tho larger
ones that rested transversey upon it.
The moment FIRE was communicated, both
parties FASTENED back to the point Of starting,
firing every room as they went, where they en-
tered the ce opposite the point of attack, and
closed the heavy door to shut out the heat and
ly, and wound rapidly around the thin wooden
partitions, and then died down. and muffled for
moment in the dense smoke. But only for
moment when draught from some unaccoun-
table source, famed it to blaze, and the whole
cellar was living fond Of flame
The powerful draught was occasioned by the
bursting open of the old DOORS through which
stores were carried to the cellar, and opening
in to the outside world some rods beyond the
walls of the castle Tie dense volume of smoke
that poured out and rolled away with the wind,
was unseen by the nhuman brutes who were
preparing to again let loose their engine of des-
truction.
1t was the eliminating point of excitement
to the imprisoned miners. The certainty of
death they could talk coolly over but the sus-
pense, which would certainly end in fiery doom
to their foes, or unheard-of tortures to them
selves, passed in breathless silence The still
ness of death reigned throughout the cell as the
fierce flames rolled on.
Hark
The tale is told
The internal regions can hardly have paral-
lei to the awful scene that met the gaze Of the
miners as they swung in the door and looked
out The whole vast floor had fallen with
crash, and the sickening sight of two hundred
savages writing and shrieking in their terrible
death agonies, scores only partly above the
brick, crisping up instantly in the most borrid
agony, and Others running over the mass Of
brick, tearing their hair and uttering unearlhly
yells in their intense sufferings ill conquered
by the slow heat of the remorseless furnace.
The whole party broathed O SIGH of relief