The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-11-14
THE DEATH TRAP.
SIC. T. HAnBAUeH.


was smithening steel, and the smitt
who swung the ponderOus hammel
was a man of no common muscle.
| He was young and remarkably
handsome but there was an evi
lurking in his cold. black eyes which
would have repulsed the close OBJ
server. The light of his forge fire
rendered ghostly the objects in the
remote corners of the shop; but il
fell brightly upon the bright look
ing piece of steel which he was ham
mering.
| resembled the jaw of some i'm.
mense trap, strong enough to hold
bear, and the wonder was that the
strength of man could prepare it for
it's prey. If any man in Middleton
could control snch trap, it was the
man whose hands were fashioning
it.
For long tine David Thrall had
been working of nights, with his
shop barred to visitors, and the
clang-clang-clang of his hammer
had sounded in the furthest corner
of the growing village. He was a man
ofstrong passions, the first to resent
an insult to friend, and the last to
give mp an argument when he found
logic against him.
No person had bothered him while
he swung the hammer over the ter
rible steel trap which he was max
ing. It is true that few boys
looked in the window at the inaugur-
alton of his work, but his madden
ing threats against them had kept
the prying urchins away.
81 told her that she should never
laugh at my love and live to boast
of it to another man |" said David
Thrali, aloud, one night as he paused
to wipe great drops OF perspiration
from his brow.
"She laughed and told me not to
let anger get the best of me, and
thought would forget it. Forget
Never !" and the hammer came
down vengefully upon the glowing
steel.
81 am making this trap because
you rejected my love. Agnes Temple,
but it shall not tear your pretty skin.
Mono! I would not injure one of
your golden hairs; but am going to
teach you that there is one man in
whose heart cannot be
,rifed with"
Thus he talked to himself, while
ne stood over his anvil and swung
lis hammer, whose every blow told
IN his horrible mechanism, and hur-
led it toward completion.
That night he finished it. He
leld it in the light of his coal fire
Ind pronounced it perfect, smiled
lpon it with pride, and showed that
le had strength enough to master
is jaws.
''Now. my boy, we'll try you
David Thrall put his trap into a
ack, smothered the fire and left the
mitny.
He walked rapidly towards the
utskirts of the village, seen by no
ne, for the night was dark and the
he wind high. 1t was in the fall of
he year, and the yellow leaves of
he time fell around him in a goI-
en- shower. But he did not notice
hem any more than to brush an oc-
one from his long beard,
egrimmed, like his face with the
DOT of his shop.
He did not come to a halt until he
cached the iron track that ran over
le road which he was traversing.
[iddleton had not been honored by
ne steam cars, which, as if to taunt
lie place, left it half mile to the
est.
David Thrall threw his burden :,
own and sigh of relief escaped !
IN. Then he struck match and G
oked at his watch.
1t was eight o'clock.
''He passed about none," he NUT :
red.
THE passenger goes by at ten. >
en- the lightning express" =
He spoke with fendishness al !
ost foreign to the human heart, 81
ID set to work fastening the strong
aims attached to his Internal trap ;.
the rails. :
He had evidently studied this :,
.rt of his work. for he performed :
in darkness and then rested. :
But the end was not yet. =
Throwing himself upon the spring, -
set the trap, and the terrible jaws :
re ready to c:ose upon their :, :
,tim. :.
The wind threw leaves oyer the =
2 trap, as lfintent on aiding the
.lous blacksmith, and as the
'uds scurried westward, he
" the star CLEANS fall upon the =
YES that covered it.
It was q picturesque place which