The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1875-03-26

| depth. Was the fragment of stalactite still
| sweeping downward below him? Not
breath, not whisper of sound had return
ed from the antipodal blackness. In the
horror and uncertainty of fathomless space
below he looked up to his sole salvation
| above, the durability and strength Of the
fibres of the single rope that held his life
| suspended as lamp. Every memory OF
| appalling and pendant danger he had ever
heard or read Of came to him then. He
remembered men whose hair had instantly
turned gray when they beheld the tibres of
rope yielding one by one above them.
Was his support perfectly and infallibly
secure? Were there no flaws in the rope2
Was no abrasion of the rope against q
rocky angle of the cliffs above, at that mo-
ment going on? He swung against the
wall of the pit at that instant. His feet
swept against the side, and then his body
touched the rock, and the lamp above him
clashed against it. What could that
mean ? The law Of the perpendicular had
evidently met with an obstacle, slight, it
is true, but fearfully suggestive. The
slight interference with his descent recall
ed again with terrible distnctness the
danger of future abrasion. Some cliff-edge
ensue the sudden sweep downward to de-
struction. All he touched the side again.
and instantly cloud swept over him en-
veloping him in total darkness. His eyes
were closed, and he could not raise the
lids. Something clammy as death en-
wrapped him from head to foot. 1t was
not death, but horrid, disgusting, suffo-
eating life. He was wrapped from head
to foot in clammy backness.
Every inch Of his face, hair, shoulders,
arms and body were envelopcd with hor-
ror, tremulous, living horror, and he could
not open his eyes, could not raise his arms
from his side, and the weight of the clam.
my mass was doubling and thickening
upon him every instant. Even his lamp
was enveloped in sheets of accommodating
blackness and clammy life. Not one effort
could he make to free himself He could
only tremble. His eyclids were glued to-
gether, and his heart called on God. Slow
ly downward into blackness lie descended,
and his black pail was tremulous and
quivering life. lie was the centre of a dis
gushing mass oftens of thousands of swarm
ing black bats. Slowly he descended in
sutfocating silence, when, 10! the over
whelmning mass deserted him as suddenly
as they had come. He opened his eyes
upon lateral cavern, where clouds OF the
bats were sweeping away from him, and
where he could see them clinging to the
halls and roof in myriad groups, or testoon-
ed from rock to rock and clinging to each
other. The reality of the danger he had
escaped was manifested an instant after he
had passed the bat cavern. His descent
was suddenly checked. There be was sus.
pended in space, with his lamp lighting
the gloom about him. After an instant's
reflection he concluded that he had reach.
ed the end OF his rope, and that the fear
fully remote Stephen was attaching another
COIL He remained undulating slowly in
space, and realizing that had the rope Civ
en- out score of feet above, he should have
bbeqasf tsf more 3tf rope W VAS 60 90
ing on, he examined the rock close beside
him. 1t was evidently sandstone. No
doubt he had penetrated deep into the
primary fossiliterous or palnozc class of
rocks. He concluded, upon further inspec-
ton, that he was amid the Devonian group,
and that the Silurian group ofrocks was
still below him.
All was silence and gloom beyond the
narrow circle illuminated by the rays OF
his lamp. Close before him were the rocks
he had examined, and when lie whired
himself about he saw that the pit was bor-
dered on that side by cavern stretching
away before him, apparently vast and lofty
as those he had examined near the surface
of the earth. Suddenly he felt his feet
cleaving space again. He was descending
once more. Hope and assistance were be-
ing parted from him farther and further at
every revolution of that remote cylinder.
Where was this all to end Gradually the
sides of the pit parted from him also, wild
ening away from him until they, too, were
lost in the gloom. His lamp revealed no
longer single object upon which the eye
could rest. lie was apparently suspended
in unlimited space. Even the friendly
sides of the abyss had left him, and the
mcasureless gloom grew painful. Anxious
ly he drew another fragment of statactite
from his bosom, and dropped it below him.
His acute ear listened long and well. No
response came back. The fragment was
still clcaving its way downward. 1t might
have miles yet to travel before it found q
rcsting-place. Silently on and on descen-
ded that terrified soul. After period
which seemed to be hours to him, he coas-
ed the descent, and hung silently as be-
fore. Nothing was around him but black
space. Was it best to continue SO hope
less an exploration Should he still seek
the bottom of bottomless pit While his
reason suggested return, his indomitable
will induce him to withhold that shot from
his pistol which would announce the alb
andonment of the search. Would that shot
help him This became an appalling
doubt. 1t was Il serious question whether
or not the noise of that discharge would
now reach the far off guide. While he
debated the matter in his mind, q new coil
ofrope had evidently been attached, and he
WAS descending again slowly, slowly pass
ing down into black, horrible immensely.
Minutes rolled away and still he met moth
ing, saw nothing but the narrow circle of
light, herrifying intense darkness. He
grew nervous at length and ardcntly long
ed for solid of some kind to loom into
sight. Vain hopel On and on, silently
downward he moved.
When the descent ceased again and no
object had made its appearance, he deci-
ded to give the signal for return. He
could no longer endure that terrible un-
dulating in space, that silence fearful as
DEATH that consciousness ofisolation from
man and material objects. Even vile bat
would have been relief He could endure
it no longer. He drew his revolver and
fired. The flash lighted up broad sphere
of darkness around him, apparently bound
| less. A terrific roar came back to him at
at last, deafcning in its echoes, but so long,
SO tardy in its response, that the concus-
sion made by the shot seemed to have tray
elctl away miles into the lateral darkness
before it met the hidden rocks. What was
his horror to discover that his signal had
| failed The terrible rope commenced
again its downward course; he descended