Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-07-20
s.The Strangest Adventure.

.The Strangest Adventure.
Yes. 7 could tell you plenty of stories
like that I've seen few adventures In
my time
me a few more ? It's early yet
We were sitting in the half'demolished
summer-house of little village inn on
the coast of Brittany-in all probability
the only wakeful inhabitants of the whole
place, for sitting up till eleven p. N. Is an
enormity unknown in that primitive
region. Ny companions stern swarthy
face and tangled black beard, seen be-
meath the uncertain light of the rising
moon. might have made him appear, to
any person of unsteady nerves, rather an
.uncanny' comrade for a midnight t6t6-0-
tete; but in spite of his repellent manner
and miner-like roughness Of speech, there
was an Undesirable SOn1eut1ng In his tone
and bearing which convinced me that,
however he might have fallen, or been
forced into his present nondescrlpt way
of life, he had Ito use the common phrase)
been gentleman enoe.' This, however,
was mere conjecture on my part; for In
all the marvellous diorama of personal ad-
venture which he had spread before me
riotous revels in Australian taverns, sue
ceeded by days of peril in antarctic seas ;
fights with pirates in the straits OF Malac-
ca. following upon wrecks OF luxurious
Incidence amidst the lotuseaters OF Bra
iii: sledge drives across Russian steppes,
and bear hunts in Americ IN forests
there was not the slightest hint at his
early life or original station in society.
It was at the close of vivid description
of hurricane off Cape Horn that my
Ulysses paused in his narrative, and re-
iterated nv request for another page
from this eventful autobiography
What? not tired yet ? It's not every
one that could stand hearing fellow
: talk 40 long about himself
/, WELL said I, III only ask you for one
q more; tell me the strangest adventure
you ever had
The wanderer started slightly. and
then said, in an altered voice, You've
] made better bargain than you think
g for. .sM tell you the strangest OF all
, and let us see how you like it. l dom
ask YOU to believe it, because l know thai
II when Won pnt these sort of things into
70 books people laugh, and talk Of Baror
# Munchuasen, and all that. I've read th'
O Baron. no went on, noticing my look Q
!, surnrise, sand many another book tina
- would never give me credit for; but In
: book this story I'm going to tell yo'
e would be impossible and it's just 66cauS
it seems impossible that it is true.
il 80 saws Byron interrupted l, speaking
lightly, in order to dissipate the effect IL
A. Voluntarily produced upon me by the tel
a. rible emphasis of the mans tone an
T. manner.
j, I've read Byron, too be rejoined
e though yoa mayn't think it. That d.
scrintion of the sunset in Greece was a
WAYS favorite bit of mine
20 But | must get to my story. You RI
f. member how those two fellows robbed no
al tent. and how fred all the six barrels {
GO nv revolver into them as they I'm Oft
well. it WAS Just after that job that
u shifted nv tent away from the rest, thinf
ing I'd be more comfortable by myself &c
y a bit. You'll say this was rather venture
az some after I'd been robbed once already
4. hut then, You see, these beauties that
:, fred at thought they'd fairly cleaned n
w. out. Nobody knew that I'd got IL
ne more buried under n big gum'tree SON
m two hundred yards off; so the whole cam
In thought I was dry, and you may be sui
did not undeceive them. Well move
r nv tent up to the tree where the gol
ce was. and there | staid; but still stuc
q, to nv digging, to make up for what L
al lost. I got a middling lot of dust ever
"A dsy. but took care to let nobody st
:, more of it than I could help; so folks g
lit to think I was down on my luck, and lie
off minding about me at all.
IN. sOne night I'd been working prett
nd late, and got chilled right through; 81
. though | rolled my blanket well rour
Nv me after turning into my hammock,
est couldn't get warm anyhow; and so
he sbivered away till fell asleep. Then
he fell to dreaming that | was in a franc
av like some man | once read about in Anne
- ica, and that they thought me dead, HI
~ were going to bury me, tried my har
nd eat to move, or scream out, or sometbin
tc. but no good and | heard the coffin /
ng slap to. and the first spadeful of ear
"a. fall on it, and then l awoke.
J.. 1T was a fine bright morning, al
through the opening of the tent l cou
'ci- see the sun shining, and hear the pie
1es and cradles getting to work as usus
os. But my dream wasn't all fancy, for [ fe
u,. as if 1 were bound down and couldr
move hH HUI hbh JOD ~ ""cH NJ
go that either-it was more as if | had
ity substance left, but was all air and shade
led If ever a living man felt like ghost,
nd did then.
well, didn't think of being frighten'
lust at first; felt more put ont aud foC
)s- ish, like a man who's had tumble, or g
ter splashed all over by a cart. 1t seemed
ost queer for great strong fellow like me
.ho be laid by the heels that way, and at FIR
-, the thought of it almost made me laugl
aia so there lay like log for ever so Ion
ex- listening to all the noises from the cam
zen till at last(about noon it must have bee
in. by the SUM- l began to feel hungry, al
commenced looking very hard at n
he 'damper and cold mutton, which lay upc
he a log t'other side of the tent. wei
he thought I, its queer thing for man
to be starved this way with food before
be eyesr But the moment l thought
a. something cold seemed to clutch my hea
IVY and squeeze it altogether. l tried to p
Ter it away by saying to myself, This III
,b- off soon-of course it will : but at tn
minute it flashed across me, as it some o.
had written it in letters of fire all ov
an the place, And supposing it doesn't go
:.l-what then ?
- 1T was then that began to feel frigt
ill ened for the first time. turned sick ,
for at once as if I was going to die. and lib
fainfod for 4