The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1870-01-08

cutlass in hand, he entered-not fearin .
forty skeletons, though brawny sinews
night clothe them. At first he could
discern nothing, but when his eyes be-
came accustomed to the gloom he saw
the silent and feshless sentinel still grin
Mug in terrible mockery of mortality
over the worm eaten table, while many
mouldering bone of its frame lay damp
and dark around it. Looking closely,
the youth saw that wires had been used
/ to keep its CHASTITY skull erect, and as his
keen eye looked sharply around, he no.
ticed a part Of the earthen floor much
more beaten down than the remainder
and following this slight path as his
sight grew clear aud true, he traced it to
a corner where he saw a row of great
/ iron spikes driven into the wall, and end
ing ut a small trap door above in the
oaken ceiling. To loosen his pistols in
! his belt and ascend with his cutlass ready
for anything unexpected, was but the
work Of an instant with the active AL
bert \ steady pressure forced up the
trap, and flood OF light poured in upon
the small apartment above, from win
dow there wide open. Entering stealth
t
him. Percciving a door near him, Al
bert boldly opened it and found himself
in the presence of most lovely girl of
some fifteen or sixteen years, whose look
of terror and disgust, as he entered, i'm
mediately changed to one of hope, joy
and surprise, as her beautiful black eyes
gazed into his frank and manly face.
"Ah. You have come to take me
away" she exclaimed, grasping his hands.
but where is he-the monster 7"
tie? Who? What n:onster?' said
Albert.
The monster that ny uncle has placed
over me to keep me in this horrid place. :"
IL have seen no such ANIMAL said the
bewildcred Albert; "but if you wish to
escape, [ will place you in safety in spite
of every monster that ever hreathed.'
y shriIl yell. like the cry of some
fierce beast, thrilled upon the ear, and as
Albert turned to greet the utterer, the
door leading into the other chamber was
rudely dashed open, and the cry of terror
that pealed from the young girls lips
told that the cnraged new conner was her
dreaded jailor.
The monster was horribly deformed
man, of perhaps thirty years of age, with
savage and brutal visage, as scarlet as
vermilion itself; with yellow, shaggy
hair and tangled beard, and arms 50 long
that the hunch- backed monster resemb!ed
huge ape more than a human being.
With flaming eyes, that rolled tero
ciously over the undaunted front of the
athletic youth as he placed his tall and
deep chested form in front of the trem
bling girl, and gripping with ITS long
spider like claws, this thing clad in loose
robes of a reddish brown, snarled,
''W hat are you here for! Go away !
She's to be my wife when Hugh comes
back, Go away"
oh (. he will murder me if you go!"
/ cried the girl, clasping her snowy hands.
"Oh if you 80 take me away with you.
+ My uncle stole me from my parents in
Nirgiuia-he is keeping me to force my
/ father, the husband of Garbolt's sister.
to sign away all his property to him to
get me baek-do not leave me-"
+ With yell and bound the monster
/ was at his throat. Manfully then did
Albert stout sinews, toughened in many
a wrestle with his burly comrades, second
| his struggles. The monster was giant
/ in strength and as active as panther.
! He led, snapped mis- saarp teeth and
I tried to sink them into Alber, S throat
/ For fully half an hour the contest was
/ doubtful, but at length Nandemeer. ex-
erting all.his powers, hurled his foe head
/ long down the trap, just as the face OF
/ Hugh Garbolt, pale aud death-like, was
/ peering from below. The weight and
/ impetus of the vanquished monster bore
Garbolt down with him against one of
! the iron spikes, used as means of as
cent, aad there. hanging by the great
jagged nail, piercing fully four inches
! under his right ear, Hugh Garbolt,
/ shrieking with agony, was for moment
suspended, until desperate plunge and
/ struggle cast him to the hard earthen
/ floor, as dead as if knife had cut his
! throat from ear to ear-ft ending to his
! long unpublished career of atrocIous vii
/ lainy Albert safely descended with the
/ joyous but trembling girl. and instead OF
skeleton" he slept in his own snug bed,
after hearing the brief story of the res
cued one, who gave her name as Ella
/ Avail. who was warmly welcomed to the
home of the kind hearted widow Vande-
4 meer.
Ella Avail was the neice of Hugh Gar
bolt, who had for many years led life
of infamy, all along the colonial coasts,
and she had been kidnapped by him
three months before her rescue, and hid
den in that secluded house SO eagerly
summed by all and there the miserable
offspring of her step-uncle, for her own
mother was dead for many years, kept
guard over the helpless girl; though the
ghastly thing in the chair in the lower
room, left there by Hugh TO terrify her
and such as might venture too nearly,
would have been to her timid mind a
guard as fearful as thousand savage
men.
When Hugh Garbolt first visited the
spot, its adaptability as place of con-
cealment struck him at once for even
then he had it in mind to abduct the
only child Of Leonce Avail, his sisters
husband, wealthy and noble of Vir-
ginia, who had often filled the purse of
the uncrateful Garbolt When his life