Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1866-08-11

for stout stick as defense. agains
attack as l CROPPED my way on, feeling
convinced that l should be right if
crawled down stream, when little re
Election would have told me that III
stream must be the right way, for
must have been borne down by the wa
ter. But I could not reflect, for m,
brain seemed in a state of fever, ant
now and then my teeth chartered as i
had the ague. y, -
CROPPED on for quite quarter of al
hour, when the horrid thought cam,
upon me that I was going wrong, ant
again l tried to lean up against tn,
wall, which seemed to cause my feet t,
slip from Under me- l felt no cold, TO
the perspiration dropped from me as
frantically turned back and tried to re
trace my steps, guiding myself by run
ming a hand against the wall, where
every now and then it entered the
mouth of a small drain, when, SO SURE
as it did there was scuffle and a rush
and more than once l touched the cold
slippery body of rata touch thai
made me start back as though shot
On went, and on, and still no scat
fold and no CLEAN of gas-light. Tho
after thought gave fresh horror to my
! situation, as now l felt certain that il
my frantic haste l had taken a wrong
turn or entered a branch of the main
place; and at last, completely Devil
dered,. l rushed headlopg on, stumbling
and falling twice over, so that l was
half choked in the black water. But
it had its good effect for it put a STOP
to my wild struggles, which must soor
have ended in my falling insensible into
what was certain death. The watel
cooled my head, and now, feeling com
pletely lost, knowing that must have
been nearly two hours in the sewer, ]
made up my mind to follow the stream
to its mouth in the Thames, where, il
the tide was down, I could get from
the mud on to the wharf or bank.
So, once more | struggled on, follow.
ing the stream slowly fer what seemed
to be hours, till at last, raising my hand
| found 1 could. not touch the roof;
and by that knew was in large
sewer, and therefore not very far from
the mouth. But here there was new
terror creeping up me, SO to speak, fol-
from my waist the water now touched
my chest, and soon after my arm-pits
when I stopped, not daring to trust my
self to swim, perhaps mile, when ]
felt that weak | could not have gone a
hundred yards.
| know in my disappointment | gave
a howl like wild beast, and turned
again to have hard fight to breast the
rushing water; which nearly took me
off my legs. But the fear Of death lent
me help, and | got on and on again till
| felt myself in turning which l soon
knew was smaller sewer, and from
thence l reached another, where 1 had
to stoop; but the water was shallower
not above my knees, and at last much
less deep. Here l knelt down to rest,
and the position brought something else
from my heart and, after while, still
stooping, went on, till after having
passed dozens and dozens of drains, |
determined to creep up one, and | did.
P'raps you won't think it strange, as |
dream and groan in bed sometimes,
when I tell you what followed.
crawled N, and on, and on, in the
hopes that the place was in would
lead under one of the street gratings,
and kept staring ahead in the hopes
Of catching CLEAN of light, till at last
the place seemed so tight that I could
go no farther, for fear of being fixed iu.
So I began to back very slowly, and
then, feeling it rather hard work, stop
ped for rest. 1t was quite dry here
but scuffling on in front, kept hearing
the rats had driven before me; and
now that I stopped and was quite still,
half a dozen of them rushed to get past
me, and the little fight which followed
even now gives NE the horrors. l had
hardly room to move But killed one
by squeezing him, when the others
backed off, but not until my face was
bitten and running with blood. At last,
half dead, I tried to back out, for the
place seemed to stife me, and I pushed
myself back a little way, and then I was
stopped, for the skirts of my jacket fill
ed up what little space had been left,
and 1 felt that was wedged in, stuck
fast. Now came the horrors again,
worse than ever. The hot blood SEEM
ed to gush into my eyes. L felt half
suffocated; and to add to my sufferings,
a rat, that felt itself, as it were, penned
up, fastened upon my lip. 1t was its
last bite, however, for half mad as felt
then, my teeth had closed in moment
upon the vicious beast, and it was dead.
/ made one more struggle, but could
not move, l was so knocked up. And
then I tainted. It must have been
some time before I came to myself but
when I did, 1.-The first sound l heard was
a regular tramp, tramp, of some. one
walking over my head, and then I gave
long yell for help, when, to my great
joy, the step halted, and / shrieked
again, and the sweetest sound l have
ever heard in my life came back. 1t was
a voice shouting. t.gs7r-ai
"Halloo y .
"Stuck fast in the drainp' / shouted
with all the strength L had left and
then ] swooned off once more, to wake
up week afterwards out of brain fe-
yer sleep in hospital. "a ssa
II seems had got within few wards