The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-02-12
Caught ip His Own Tolls.

the ponderous hammer was man of no
common muscle.
He was young and remarkably handsome;
but there was an evil lurking in his cold
black eyes which would have repulsed the
close observer.
The light of his forge fire rendered
ghostly the objects in the remote corners
of the shop; but it fell brightly upon the
strengthening piece of steel he was ham,
mering,
1t resembled the jaw of some immense
trap, strong enough to hold bear, and
the wonder was that the strength of man
could prepare it for its prey.
If any man in Middletown could control
such trap; it was the man whose hands
were fashioning it.
For long time 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 q man of strong passions the
first to resent an insult to friend, and the
last to give up an argument when he found
logic against him.
No person had bothered him while he
swung the hammer over the terrible steel
trap which he was making
1t is true thata few boys looked in at the
window at the Inauguration of his work,
but his maddening threats against them had
kept the prying urchins away.
II told her that she should never laugh
at my love and live to boast of it to an
other mani" David Thran said aloud, one
nightas he paused to wipe great drops of
| perspiration from his brow.
"She laughed then, and told me not to
let anger get the better Of me, and thought
| would forget it. Forget? Never!" and
the hammer came down wrathfully upon
the glowing steel.
81 am making this trap because you re-
jected my love, Agnes Temple. But it
shall not tear your pretty skin. No, no !!
would not injure one of your golden hairs;
but am going to teach you that there is
one in Middletown whose heart canuot be
triAed with"
Thus he talked to himself, while he
stood over his anvil and swung his hammer,
whose every blow told On his horrible me-
chanism, and hurried it towards compile
ton. That night he finished it,
He held it in the light of his coal fire,
and pronounced it perfect; smiled upon it
with pride, showed that he had strength
enough to master its jaws.
Now, my boys, we'll try it."
David Thrall put his trap into sack,
smothered the fire, and left the smithy
He walked rapidly to the outskirts of the
village seen by no one, for the night was
dark and the wind high.
1t was in the autumn of the year, and
the yellow leaves of the trees fell around
him in golden showers. But he did not
notice them any more than to brush an oc-
oasional one from his long beard, be-
grimed like his face with the SCOT of his
shop.
He did not come to halt Until he
reached the iron track that ran over the
road he was traversing
Middletown had not been honored by the
steam cars, which, as if to taunt the place,
left it half mile to the west.
David Thran threw his burden down,
and sigh of relief escaped him. Then
he struck match and looked at his
watch.
"He passes about nine," he muttered.
'The passenger goes by at ten, then the
lightning express"
He spoke with fiendishness almost
foreign to the human heart and sat to work
fastening the strong chain attached to his
Internal trap to the iron rails.
He had evidently studied his part of his
Internal work, for he performed it in the
darkness and then rested. But the end was
not yet.
Throwing himself upon the spring, he
set the trap, and the terrible jaws were
ready to close upon their victim.
The wind threw leaves upon the trap as
if intent on aiding the jealous blacksmith,
and as the clouds sc,rried westward he
saw the star CLEANS fall upon the leaves
that covered it.
1t was picturesque place which David
Thral had selected for the deed upon which
he had set his heart
The road was narrow-inleea not more
than path-that led to Middletown, ono
the home of Agnes Temple.
He knew the man he hated would
traverse it before dawn, and he knew too
that his trap would hold him to the Ior
track.
1t was q revenge almost too terrible to b
recorded