Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-12-28

Of Manuels proceedings. He had just
lighted the matches. and was on the point
Of s,epp;ng into the bucket when ii was
suddenly drawn up. 4 conviction OF the
oyerseer's perfidy instantly flashed upon
him. and with ii a sense of the terror oil
his position Manuel was. as the direc-
TOR had said, a quick-witted fellow. lie
knew that the workmen employed in the
shaft had. few days before, come upon
small side-cut, or passage, barely large
enough 10 admit the body Of man. and
that, on tracing IL 10 its termination, IL
was found 10 lead 10 an immense chamber
in the old mine Of San Adrian. ] his
famous mine. which, as is well known, was
worked soon after the conquest OF Mexico,
and Welded immense wealth 10 its propTl-
e;ors. was abandoned about the end OF
the sixteenth century. on account or Inc
difficulty experienced in its drainage The
workmen who had explored the passage
had reported that the chamber was near
~ full Of water. and was SO large that the
light of their candles did not penetrate 10
the further extremity. The recollection
OF this discovery now occurred TO Man
uel's mind. and seemed To offer him a
chance ofescape Looking eagerly around,
he observed the opening about three feet
perate spring, he drew himself up by the
hands. and plunged into the passage.
Urged BY the dread of the coming ex-
| plosion. he rushed eagerly onward, and
last as the roar of the blast filled his ears
he fell headlong forward into sheet of
water, which spread about three feet be-
low the extremity of the passage. He
sank beneath the surface, and when he
rose. confused and GREATNESS, it was to
find himself floating in utter darkness,
without the slightest idea of the point by
which he had entered and with hardly a
chance of discovering the opening, which
lay so high above the water. A more hor-
rible situation can hardly be conceived.
Still, even in this extremity, hope did not
desert him After some rcfiestion, he
fixed upon the direction in which he
/ Judged the passage to lie, and swan care
| fully towards it, He was soon convinced,
by the space passed over, that he was
mistaken in his judgment; but consider
ing it better to keep on until he found
the wall. than 10 waste his strength in
! swimming about at random, he proceeded
steadily forward for a distance, as he
| Judged, Of nearly two hundred yards. At
! length he encountered the wall which rose
perpendicularly far above his head, as he
found by the splash Of the water he
threw against it. Coasting along it, and
occasionally touching it with one hand,
he advanced for about hundred yards
further, by which time his limbs were be
coming stiff and bcnumbcd in the icc-cOld
water, and his heart had almost failed
him. But he was not destined to perish
thus He suddenly came upon passage,
! the opening Of which was II little
I A Al. .NE
! Il was evident from this fact, as well as
| from the size of the passage, that it could
not be that by which he had entered,
However it offered him IL respite from
death, and he promptly availed himself
Of it, After sitting motionless for time
TO recover from the exhaustion of his re-
cent efforts he rose and proceeded to ex-
plorc the passage. 1t proved to be sort
Of vaulted chamber, of about his own
height, and just wide enough for him to
touch its sides with his Outstrctchcd hands.
A soul.chcering idea suddenly flashed up
on his mind There was a tradition of
an ancient socabon, or adit, which had been
driven at vast expense through the noun
tain TO effect the drainage of the old mine
of San Adrian. When the mine was
abandoned, the adit, of course, was no
longer attended to; its external opening
became closed up, and, in the space OF
more than two hundred years which had
passed. its precise locality-indeed, every
thing but the mere fact Of its existence
was forgotten Manuel well remembered
to have one day heard Don Jayne say to
Mexican gentleman, who accompanied
i him on II former visit to the mine, that he
would consider the discovery of the old
sacoJon an inestimable service, as it would
probably save the company in immense
expense for drainage in their new works.
The further the miner advanced the
more assured he became OF the truth oil
his supposition. The adit was-as from
its situation it must necessarily be-oi
greath length; and Manuel walked, as ht
supposed, nearly five hundred yards before
reaching the extremity. The water al
the way was just up to his ankles and he
thought he could perceive at times that il
had slight current in the direction in
which he was going. The passage was
closed, as he had anticipated, by II solid
mass of earth and stones, which he at ono,
set about removing. Making good use OF
his long knife, he worked indefatigably fol
more than an hour. At last he struck the
roots of tree, circumstance which as
4 sured him that he was approaching the
surface. The conviction gave him renew
ed strength. He cut with his knife, ant
dug with his torn and bleeding hands, un
til at length lucky push loosened large
stone which was enclosed between two o.
the roots of the tree. 1t fell forward, ant
the bright rays of heaven poured in upor
his dazzled and enchanted vision. He fel
thrill of delight, such as one entombet
before his time might experience when thu
doors of his sepulchre flew outward, ant
gave him back once more to warmth ant
light With little additional labor III
enlarged the aperture, until he was able tt
force himself through it. But what wal
his establishment, when at length he stoot
under the open sky, to find that he was II
the exact spot in which he had taken hi'
noontide meal only few hours before
A moments consideration cleared uI
the mystery. The fountain was no nat
ural spring, but simply the place OF exit
for the waters which accumulated in the
mine, and pcrcolated through the mass OF
rocks, earth, and vegetation that CLOSED
the entrance of the adit. So exact, how
ever, was its resemblance to an ordinary
mountain spring that this was, no doubt
the main cause of the locality of the OLD
socabon having fallen into oblivion since
nobody, of course, dreamed of looking