The weekly mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado County, Calif.) 1861-1862, 1862-11-15

knife cut II readily. II might work thrO
beside the gas.pipe. The man surely
bored larger hole than the pipe woulc
SM. felt the pipe where it went rount
the wall, and then pricke1 the wall witt
my knife; the cement with which thu
hole had been filled round the pipe wa.
harder than the wall itself
In tracing my way round the room my
hand touched the gate. was saved i
| never felt such sensation as when my
hand touched that gate. 1t was rapture
bliss! had deSpaired-l was now fnl
:. hope. passed my t>e~~ ru1r,uny
over the gate; felt one Of the bars they
were made Of FUND iron, about three
quarters of an inch in thickness, and after
running through the framework of the
gate were pointed at the end. But to gel
them out Of that framework | pulled
one. 1t yielded little, and then Knocked
at my efforts. must hive hammer
| felt carefully round ihe walls again. Thc
shelves were all let into hewalls--therc
was nothing! felt again, and close tc
the gate the bars had been cut away tc
allow the gate to roll back, and tht
shelves were supported on brackets. Ii
those brackets were. Of wrought iron
was helplcSs--cast iron might save INC
yet. felt them carefully and compared
them; if they were wrought, they would
be unlike in Soa points-if cast, alike
in all. | knew now what the touch oi
the blind must be, so full of instruction
to the mind
They were cast.iron, not trace OF
difference could he found. One more
sign and | was certain; if cast, they
would be cast in mould, and there
would be slight rOughne$s in the cast.
ing where the halves of the mould had
been Joined. felt again. There was the
roughneSs-the same in both. And now
to break them off A blow, a heavy
blow, alone could do it. | remembered
to have noticed, when putting away the
books, small chest, appareitly solid
iron, on one Of the shelves | sought for
it and found it it was heavy, nearly the
fourth Of a hundred weight, thought.
poisel it carefully, and | felt | had ju,,
strength enough to throw it with an aim
| cleared away the books from the slate
shelf which rested on one of these brack.
els, and then measuring the distance care.
fully, threw the chest on to it. II fell
short, and crashed on the floor.
Once more | tried, and this time sue.
ceSsfulIy. The missile smashed the shell
into pieces. kicked and beat away the
smaller fragments till the bracket stood
cut from the wall by itself And now
came the test Of my skill fIthrcw once
at the bracket in that black darkness,
threw twenty times or more; at last, one
fortunately directed blow, aud had the
joy of hearing it ring on the pavement Of
the room.
| had now a hammer-awkward, il is
true; still tool that would give a blow
with a certain force. struck again and
again at the bmS OF the gate; they yield.
cd As the other had done. and then were
fast. | sank down exhausted with my
useless efforts. Why did they not yield
| could give no more force to the blow.
to throw the chest at them would be use
less; the size would spread the blow over
two or three Of the bars, and the force
would be lost. | must cut through one
of the bars in the middle and thus wrench
out the half needed. How had | seen
men cut through iron? With files i
could not hope for these. remembered
to have heard prisoners who cut through
iron bars with watch-spring-by what
horrible fatality was my watch at that
moment in the case of my dressing table.
A watch -sprine--a thin piece of Steel
Would iron do? 1t might In almost
less time than it takes to tell, | had bro
ken up one Of the sheet-iron deed boxes,
aud by carefully bending a piece Of it
backwards and forwards on the Shar,! edge
Of the chest had used as q missile, OBJ.
tainel strip about the length of my
hand, and two fingers broad, and with
this | commenced saving one of he bars
Half an hours hard work produced no
on the bar, and had turned up
the edge Of the soft sheet-iron on both
sides.
Ifit had been question Of saws, |
could have turned ten deed boxes iato n
hundred saws to cut through that one
bar. Alas it was no such thing, the
saw would not cut; aud then sprung mp
before me the vision of large yard with
blocks Of stone and the motion to and
fro of the suspended saw of the stone
sawyer, and his little trickling water bar
rel and heap of sand. Once more went
to work. broke off a corner of one OF
the stone shelves, (the lower ones were of
stone, the upper Of slate,) pounded it Il ic
with my hammer, and then wcttng the
edge OF the saw with saliva, strcwed
the pounded stone upon it. felt the
saw become stra1ier and stcadirr, and at
last could feel with my nail little nick
in the bar. worked for nearly three
hours at this one bar, changing my saw
when it was worn hollow for another and
another till | had worn out six of them.
| was nearly through ---ait0fAer half hour
and | should be quite through; vet it
might break off now with a blow-it
it might leave ragged end
to my chsrl that would destroy half the
force Of my blows when came to bore
through the wall; would not strike.
but kept on patiently, and at last the saw
went through. seized the end, and in
a few minutes | held in my hand the in
strumenl of my deliverence.
The air of the room had by this time
time become close and sitting, and it was
only by STOPPING that could breathe
freely. had still, as far as could judge,
some five hours left-in those | must ac-
compliSh my dcliverance or die.
now commenced sounding with my
hammer for tho least solid part Of the
wall.
In striking it on a part nearly opposite
the shelves cut ont for the gate, thought
| hea it sound hollow; struck again
and again without success; it all seemed
allie. Once more | determined to strike
over the whole space l had previously
struck this | did, and found the spot,
about the size of penny piece, from
which the sound came. ! then carefully
felt the wall in the neighborhood, and
found that rough, indented line ran from
this place round the angle of the wall,
and on the wall IN the same line were
three small holes in n circle decided
ot Ouca thot fhiS waS fha I,lnca n,horn N