The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-02-16

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eyes off him, except when their glances
met, and then they would both blush
and suddenly let their looks fall to the
ground. There is no doubt that very
pretty love romance was taking shape
here.l]l I0 diI6a l3ltg1s3fL 54Ll ]
One day, the uncle, who was a good
natured old fellow, asked Wolfgang to
accompany him down to his wine Gel.
lar. Both Wolfgang and Augusta went
with him into the cellar, which, though
very small, was twenty steps under the
ground. When they had reached it, the
old gentleman pointed to his casks with
genuine pride.
1Now you shall taste some real
Grinzenger," he said, "that I have
saved expressly for you. With these
words, he told his young guest to sit
down upon the only chair there was,
and he reached him glass Of pure old
Austrian wine. Wolfgang took a good,
deep swig of it, more than he was &C
customed to take, and as drinking in a
wine cellar seldom has the effect OF a
narcotic, he began to move about until
he struck against board partition that
formed the back wall of the. cellar.
"Hellow he cried out, "what have
you got behind this? Is there another
cellar?" t
ooh, no." replied the old gentleman,
laughingly, "that is the spirit world in
there" 81 ,at ...a.
Wolfgang became very pale and con-
fused, for he thought his uncle's speech
was intended to ridicule him on account
of his well-known propensities for the
mysterious, which the old gentleman
had always characterized as nonsense.
His confusion was soon gone again,
and, after little while, all three went
up stairs into daylight. AS they got
into the room above, Augusta discov-
cred that she had forgotten her hand
kerchief in the cellar. Without saying
a word, or intimating in any way that
he intended to go below, Wolfgang
left the room and sought the cellar,
in order to find the handkerchief and
bring it back.
Feeling his way down the steps with
out a light, he was not a. little aston
ished to find neither a cask, nor the
spot where the handkerchief ought
to be, nor the chair, or the back wall
of the cellar. He thought he must be
bewitched, and as the cellar steps
seemed to become longer and longer,
the stranger really beganto be anxious
at last. His morbid Imagination pic
tured the most horrible things, and a
cold sweat broke out all over him. He
never dreamed into what he had pene-
trated.
Formerly there were steps from every
house in this street leading into the
catacombs. Unfortunately, there was
a similar entrance from the cellar of
the inn which Wolfgang's uncle kept.
The old gentleman himself, who had
taken but little notice of it and had
given himself no trouble about danger
IN it, had never gone to the end of the
steps. He had closed the entrance by a
light partition, which the young man in
lis first visit had taken to be the wall
and the end of the cellar. Either
through the usually hard slamming of
he upper cellar door, or God knows
by what aunlucky circumstance, this
PARTITION door was thrown wide open;
md Wolfgang, instead of stopping at
he end of the 20 steps, had gone on
lown until, without his knowing it, he
lad reached the dreadful surroundings
If the catacombs.
Who can imagine the terror of such
mistake? Even the darkest night
hrows some shadow, but here the night (
eemed to be absorbed by some other {
light, and the darkness was absolutely
mpenetrable. He saw just what he
i'd not want to see. He saw in his ;
his fathers corpse, and S
keletons of the dead, which appeared s
0 grasp after him and draw him still /
nrther in the fearful and endless laby-
NTH. He staggered on, until it seemed 9
0 him as if the ground would give way q
nder the feet. He caught at the wall
, sustain himself and turned about to
etrace his steps. He felt his way Q
long the wall until his hand encount- b
red hard substance-and the next t
loment he sent forth q fearful shriek La