The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-11-14

the prey come lne TRAP Is ready
I wish you pleasant time of il
Julian Wingfold. To be plain,
should like to know how a mai
would feel between too such jaws.
Then he picked up his sack ant
started back to Middleton.
| But he had not gone ten yards be
fore he halted. "The trap Nigh
have been set a little easier" h'
said to himself. "It has not beer
worked much, and the easier it i:
set, the surer I shall be ofmy prey
Intent upon readjusting the devil
ish invention, the blacksmith re
traced his steps, and for the second
time in that lonely and beautiful
spot bent over the cross-ties.
He placed his knee upon the
spring to prevent the jaws from
closing and catching their maker.
while he tampered with the trig-
| ger.
He was in the midst this work,
when from some unaccountable cause
his knees slipped from the spring.
and-oh. horror the mighty jaws
| closed on his wrists
With cry, indescribably full Of
agony. the entrapped man tried to
spring to his feet, but the trap fas-
tened as it was TO the rails. held
him securely down.
The sharp teeth seemed to cut in.
to the very morrow of his bones, aud
he was experiencing the horror of a
human being caught in the trap. He
tried to crush the spring, but it
would not yield to the power which
it had lately owned, and then he
tried to tear himself loose.
But the pain occasioned by his
efforts was so great that he was
forced to desist lest he should faint,
and in that condition be caught by
the train,
"If it had but caught my leg
he cried, "I could tear it loose; but
oh these precious arms of mine y
1t was a terrible moment for the
entrapped man.
All at once, in that hour of ter
ror, he thought of the man for whom
he had prepared the jaws of unyield-
ing steel.
He would doubtless reach the
crossing and release him before the
train was due, for Julian Wingfold
was not a vengeful rival,
All thoughts of revenge against
the beautiful Agnes Temple had
left his mind F.; he looked up at the
stars, and they seemed to mock his
misery; he cried for help from the
terror-stricken depths of his heart.
But no footstep sounded upon his
ears. God and man seemed to
have left the hater to his fate.
Suddenly David ThralI started,
and cry of despair welled from his
throat.
The shrill shrieks of the locomo-
tive told him that the one dread
hour of his capacity had passed away
and that the end of all was near at
hand
"God in heaven have nmercy !"
he cried. 'Do unto me not as I
would have done unto another p
But no deliverance came and the
sound of the whistle died away with
D moclxing echo.
Within five minutes the iron mon
'ter would be upon him, and the
most terrible drama ever enacted in
hat lovely country would have
cached its tragic finale.
He heard the rumble of the train,
which seemed to approach on the
wings of the wind. He raved, he
cursed, and tried to wrench his
wrists from the jaws of steel, tried
o break them of, and bear life and
bleeding stumps away, but in vain.
With the tenacity OF death itself the
trap held him down. T
The locomotive shrieked again, t
nd David Thrall paused and looked :
yer his shoulder. He saw the !
eadlight now; it dazed his eyes, j
ms he could not shade the precious f
RIBS with his hands. Then he 8
at the top of his voice but :
ne cars came on.
mo deliverance oh, heaven |" he !
reclaimed. sinking back in the few D
econds he had to live. 81 have c
lerited this. What terrible thing q
is! He will be happy
I'd she will smile upon him with all !
er dazzling beauty. But I-I-oh, r,
cd pity me. Chained to the il
ack-caught in the trap made by
y own hands for a fellow being. s.
is just. Heaven forgive me, and
'mfort my poor"
The roar of the coming train W
owned the sweet word that ever B
Irted his lips-"mother."
The rumbling of the train had II