Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-09-16

Il
those men was insupportable.
! The man, she said, must have taken the
alarm and fled out the back door, for she
could not have been 50 deceived.
Our young friends, more in pity for her
modification than from any belief in the
reality Of the night intruder, offered to re-
main in the vicinity till morning; but she
would not listen to the proposition and
! they took their departure.
was sorry To see them 60 and watched
| their forms till they were out of sight, for
the affair of the evening had almost
| frightened me into Mysteries.
Julia, however, at once rushed to the
| chamber, and fiinging herself on the bed,
continued bitterly weeping. She had ex-
hibited herself in character which she
despised; and her man under the bed
would be the talk of the neighborhood. /
followed her, but neither of us could
sleep.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck
eleven; and then tick, tick, tick il
went on for the next dreary hour. Julia
at length ceased weeping, and lay in
thought, only an occasional sigh betraying
her wakefulness.
Again the clock struck, but it had not
reached the final stroke when Julia, leap
ing out of bed, flung herself upon an i'm
mense chest at the further end of the
room.
"Oh, Nary she cried, "quick! quick
He is here! cannot hold the lid-he win
get outi''
There was indeed some living thing in
side the chest; for, in spite of Julia's
weight, the lid was lifted, and then, as the
instinct of selfpreservation overcame my
terror, sprang to her assistance.
Whom or what had we caught? Imag-
inc yourself holding down the lid of
showman's box. with a boa-constrictor
writhing beneath; or keeping cage-top
in its place by your own weight alone,
with hyena struggling to tear his way
out and devour you.
But we were not long in suspense.
Horrid execrations, half German, half
English, chilled our very hearts, and we
knew that there, in the midnight, only the
lid of an old chest was between ourselves
and Hans Schmidt!
AT times it started up, and once or twice
his fingers were caught in the opening.
Then, finding our combined weight too
much for his strength, ii would become
evident that he was endeavoring to force
out an end of the chest But he could not
such limits his giant power Of muscle was
not wholly available; he could neither
kick nor strike with full force; and hence
his chief hope rested upon his ability to
lift us up, lid and all.
Even then, in the absolute terror that
might have been supposed to possess her,
queer feeling of exultation sprang up
in Julia's heart.
81 was right, Mary" she cried. "They
won't think me fool now, will they? l
sha'n't be ashamed TO see Harry Irving"
Poor Juliai under the circumstances
the idea was really ludicrous; but nature
will everywhere assert itself, and Julia
hated coward Thump! thumpi thump!
Lid and side and end alternately felt the
cramped, powerful blows. Then came
the lift-the steady, straining lift, and
Julia cheered me when the cover shook
and rose and trembled.
He can't get out, Mary! We are safe
only just keep your full weight on the lid,
and don't be nervous, either; it is almost
morning"
She knew il was not one o'clock.
But one O'Clock came. How / wished
il was fivel And two O'Clock came, and
three and four; and we hoped that our
prisoner had yielded to his fate, which
must now appear to him inevitable.
A small aperture at one end of the chest,
where there was fracture In the wood,
supplied him with air, and hence we could
not hope that he would become weak
through suffocation. He was evidently
resting from the very necessity of the case,
for his exertions had been prodigious.
There was faint streak of morning in
the sky; and there, upon the chest, we sat
and sat and watched for the CLEAN to
broaden.
Suddenly there was tremendous strug
gle beneath us, as If the ruffian had con
centratcd all his energies in final effort.
At my end of the chest there was a crash
and Immediately the Germans feet pro-
| truded through the aperture that they had
| forced in the board. SO horrible now APP
peared our position that / uttered a
scream, such as / do not think | ever at
any other time could have had the power
| to initiate.
To get off the lid in order to defeat the
movement through the chest end would
have instantly been our destruction there
fore, still bearing our weight on the chest
we caught at the projecting feet In doing
this, however, we partially lost our bal
ance and sudden bracing up of the mus
cular shape below SO far forced open the
lid that the head, arms and shoulders Of
Hans Schmidt were thrust forth, and
with fearful clutch he seized Julia by
The throat
just then a heavy crash was heard at
the door below, the fod tramps springing
toward US as if some person were tearing
up the staircase with the full conviction
that this was an hour of need. The dim
daybreak hardly revealed his identity, but
had a faint perception that young Harry
Irving had come to us in our peril.
Some time during the morning | found
myself in bed with Julia, and several Of
the neighbors standing about me. Julia
clasped me in her arms and cried:
We are safe, Mary Harry Irving
was near the house all night. He returned
after seeming TO go home. The least
scream he would have heard as he at last
heard yours; but ! am glad you did not
scream before, for now we have had an
experience and know what we can do"
Hans Schmidt had decided upon the
chest as a safer hidiDg-place than that in
which Julia had first discovered him.
Upon the very morning on which Har.
nv Irving stunned and secured the rufilan
Al.