Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1879-09-18
We. worked at this tunnel fe

! w. ~ ~ tAAO W. III NAa y = FOAtA
lpfoposed that llcI and my othe
EEpartEer Bill Jennings, shouls
'tcarry the dirt, we had excavatet
tdown to the river land wash il
lIleaving me to dig in the tunnel
In that way they Thought W,
might t"make grub" While search
ling for the hidden money.
thought the idea foolish, but al
lthcy entered SO eagerly into m5
views regarding the buried bag
of dust / made no objections tt
1.-THE plan, and dug away with re-
Idoubled ellsrgys aInrfact, / had
Thought so much about the OBJ
iect.of our search that ] had
abecomc stterly regardless of al
most everything else. l. had
dreamed of it when sleeping;
mused on it. when waking, and
1 it had obtained complete con-
troll of. my mind, Day. after
day we worked-Ird digging and
my companions washing;. yet,
strange to say, i did not become
discouraged, e They said moth
ling about the bag of gold-dust,
aha / asked them nothing about
the result of the washing soil.
/ WeaRdd llwerked for ilabout
! three weeks, and had formed Q
tunnel extending about fifteen
feet into the hiil- when, one af-
|tesnoe,fS cdmpletelg tifedlout' /
sat down to rest Ill. the cave. ]
had only intended to rest a lit
tie while, but, five minutes had
not elapsed before Iwas sound
asleep,Ir,lI I Was awakened by a
crash, and found my feet and
Ilegsieesered1by "A -amass of dirt
and stones, The front part Of
the-tunnel had fallen in, and in
a manner buried, me aliYe,n A
boilt ten feet of the tiniiel fc-
iifirasiHned frsiHe ii firhi, a. and from my ob.
servation Of its structure prior
to the accident, / was convinc-
ed, that I had no, reason to, apr
preliend ANY danger tin That
quarter. My partners had car
ried'dirt enough Atonthe river to
keep them busy therefor the
rest of.thc day; SO | had nothing
to hope from tlicir, assistance.
The questions that first present
ed itself toimya mind was, how
long can iifc be sustained in this
confincd sfate23 III had 2raad a
dozen times statistics in rela-
tiontol amount oflairyconstuned
hourly by human beings lungs,
but, like almost'everybody else,
had merely wondered !. at. the
time, and then forgot the fig
ures.
How much L wonld have Civ
en- then. to. be able to recall
them! Thernexts thought was,
how can / proceed to extricate
MYSELF 0Fhisa question W las
Of solution. If | went
to work with shovel and(pick to
iclear. away the dirt that had
faflcnoitIwas veryplikely that all
T. Should be able to remove
would be Immediately replaced
by that which would fall in
from abovc.s.h This was pleas.
anti I. racked my poor brain
to-devise some means of libera-
ting myself; but : without effect.
Leaning, against the wall in.
utter dependency / was about
to throw myself down on the
ground and asYait tmg fate,wllen
| observed that quite a stream
of water, Oh a small scale, was
making.its way, down the side
of the cave. saAt first i was a.
lafmed,. as 4 I 0thonght it might
loosen the enrth above and bring
another mass down on my head.
The next moment the thought
struek me thatait might be ttlrn-
ed toe my \ advantage. Why.
collidlLnot direct it so that it
would" wash away sufficient.
earl b in its progress TO, the out
lot Of the cave todmakean OPEN
ing targe enough to aliow me TO
crawl through it2s Even if Il
only succeeded in making an
aif hole itwo1ld enable me at
least to'existu,niil my partners
could CONC TO my rescue, il'r ''..s =, :
-yCarefullyw examining t h e !
OF, the w9ter, Isucceeded
I'm finding the spot where it. en-
tered the cave, and to my great
10y sascGtained that 4 could
easily direct it by cutting a
ontof kde sides Of N.Y.
prison to the mass of earth that
blocked mp the entrance to the
tunnel.
The air, at this time was quite |
hot and sitting and 1 became
aware. that.whateyerd was dome
must be done quickly. . or Il
should perish for want of oxy-
gen. n.y., ~ ~ -, 80. -st ss,.l
, After cutting channel forl
tho water to flow toward the ems
trance. / enlarged the opening
by which the stream entered the
cave, and n.ejoiccd to observe
that II flowed with, redoubled