The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-07-10

doWs seldom or never open; air Is pro.
cured in sill the rooms by the primitive
method Of breaking pane here and a
pane there; and the general effect Is as
| unsightlY as q human mouth where
teeth and holes alternate. The Incident,
therefore, was nothing, If it had occur
red in any other room; hut it was not 9
thing to pass over in this room, secured
by a Bramah lock, the key Of which
was in Henry's pocket; the panes must
have been broken from the outside. 1t
occurred to him directly that q stone
had been thrown in with another
threatening scrawl.
But, casting his eye all round, he
saw nothing Of the kind about.
Then, for moment, q graVer 6uSp1-
cion crossed his mind; might not some
decorating substance, of nature to
explode when trodden upon, have been
flung in? Hillsborough eXCelled in
deviltries of this kind.
Henry thought of his mother, and
would not treat the matter lightly or
unsuspiciously. He stood still till he
had lighted lucifer match, and exam
lned the floor of his room. Nothing.
he lighted a candle, and examined
all the premises. Nothing.
But, when he brought his candle to
the window, he made discovery: the
window had two vertical iron uprtghts,
about three-quarters of an inch in cir
cumference: and one of these revealed
to his uick eye a bright horizontal
line. It had been sawed with fine
saw.
Apparently an attempt had been
made to enter his room from outside.
The next question was, had that att
tempt succeeded
He tried the bar; it was not quiet cut
through.
he locked the forge up directly, and
went to his handling>room. There he
remained till Mr.. Cheetham entered
the works: then he went to him, and
begged him to visit his forge.
Mr.. Cheetham came directly, and ex-
amined the place carefully.
He negatiVed, at once, the notion that
any Hillsborough hand had been I'M
able to saw through bar of that mod
crate thickness. NO. said he' they
were disturbed, or else some other idea
struck them all OF a sudden; or else
they hadn't given themselves time, and
are coming again Tomorrow. hope
they Sre. By six o'clock tonight, I'll
have common wooden shutter hung
with six good hinges on each side, easy
to open at the centre; only, across the
centre, 1ll fix Waterloo cracker In
side.'
"A Waterloo cracker
'Ay, but such a one as you never
saw. shall make 1t myself. 1t shall
be only four inches long, but as broad
as my hand, and enough decorating
powder in 1t to blow the shutter nifty
feet into the air; and IT there should
be one of Jobson's lads behind the
shutter at the time, why he'll learn
flying, and naught to pay for wings
why, sir, you are planning the mans
deathH
'And what is he planning? Light
your forge, and leave the job to me;
I'm HillsbOrough tooi and they've put
my blood up at last
While Henry lighted his forge, Mr.:
Cheetham whipped out a rule, and
measured the window exactly. This
done, he went down the stairs, and
crossed the yard to go to his Office.
But, before he could enter 1t, horr1.
BILE thing occurred In the room he had
just left; so horrible, ii made him brave
as he was, turn and scream like Wo-
man.
Some miscreant, by simple but in
genious means, which afterWard trans
pired, had mixed o quantity of gum
powder with the smiLhy-slack or fine
the forge was hot, the powder ignited
with a Tremendous thud, a huge mass
of flame rushed out, driving the Goals
with 1t, like shot from a gun; Henry,
scorched, blackened, and blinded, was
swept, as by flaming wind, against
the opposite WILL luen Je4AAuBI anu
stark mad with fright (for nothing
drives men out of their wits like an e1-
plosion in a narrow spaCe) he sprang at
the window, head foremost, and with
such velocity, that the sawed iron snapt
like stick of barley-sugar, and out he
went head foremost; and this it was
made Cheetham scream, to SO him head
downwards, and the paving stones be-
low.
But the aperture was narrow; his
body went flying through, bnt his right
arm went round the unbrOken upright,
and caught it in the bend Of the elbow.
Then Cheethhom roared, Hold on,
LittleI Hold on, tell you
The scared brain OF a man accustomed
to obey received the command almost
without the mind, and the grinders and
forgers, running wildly into the yard.
saw the obnoxious workman, black as
a cinder, from head to foot, bleeding at
the face from broken glass, hanging up
there by one hand, moaning with ter
ror, and looking down with dialattng
eve, while thick white smoke rushed
curling out, as if his body was burning.
Death by suffocation was at his back,
and broken bonesSawaited him below.
(ro BE CONTINUED NEXT FRIDAYO