Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-03-15
1Therep exclaimed the sn,ithy, as he

be plain, ! should Like to know how q
man would feel betw1n two such jaws"
Then he picked up the sack and start
ed back to Middleton. But he had not
gone ten yards before he halted.
"Thctrap might have been set little
easier" he said to himself. 1T has not
been worked much and the easier it is.
set the surer shall be of my prey"
Intent upon readjusting the deyilish
invention, the blacksmith retraced his
steps, and for the second time in that
lonely and beautiful spot he bent over
the cross-ties.
He placed his knee upon the spring to
prevent the jaws from closing end catch
ing their maker, while he tempered
with the trigger.
He was in the midst of the work, when,
from some unaccountable cause, his
knee slipped from the spring, and-oh,
horror! the mighty jaws closed on his
wrist
With a cry, indescribably full of ago
ny, the entrapped man tried to spring
to his feet, but the trap, fastened as it
was to the iron rails, held him securely
down.
The sharp teeth seemed to cut into the
marrow of his bones, and he was expe-
riencing the horrors of human being
caught in trap.
He tried to crush the spring, but it
would not yield to the power which he
had lately owned, and then he had tried
to tear himself loose.
But the pain Occasioned by it's efforts
was so great that he was forced to desist
lest he should faint, and in that condi-
ton caught by the train.
eff it had caught my Leg" he cried,
~ could tear it loose; but oh, these pre-
clous arms of mine.'
It was terrible moment for the en-
trapped man.
All at once, in that hour of terror, he
thought of the man for whom he had
prepared the jaws Of unyielding steel.
He would doubtless reach the crossing
and release him before the train was due,
for Julian Wingfeld was not a vengeful
rival.
All thoughts of revenge against the
beautiful Agnes Temple had left his
mind, he looked up at the stars and they
seemed to mock at his misery; he cried
for help from the terror-stricken depths
of his heart. But no footsteps sounded
upon his ears.
Heaven and man seemed to have left
the hater to his fate. Suddenly David
Thrall started, and cry Of despair we'll
ed from his throat.
The shrek of the engine told him that
the one dreaded hour Of his captivity
had passed away, and the end of all was
near at hand.
'Heaven have mercyw he cried. "Do
not unto me as l have done unto an
other"
But no deliverance came, and the
sound Of the whistle died away with a
hooking echo,
Within five minutes the iron monster
would be upon him, and the most terri
BILE drama ever enacted in that lovely
country would have reached it's tragic
finale. He heard the roar of the train,
which seemed to approach on the very
wings Of the wind.
He raved, he cursed, and tried to
wrench his wrist from the jaws Of steel,
and tried to break them off, and bear life
and the blessed stumps away, but in
vain. With the tenacity of death itself
the trap held him down.
the engine shrieked again, and David
Thrall paused and looked over his Shout
der.
He saw the headlight now; it dazed
his eyes, and he could not shade the
precious orbs with his hands. Then he
shrieked at the top Of his voice; but the
cars came on.
"No deliverance! Oh, Heavenw he
exclaimed, ~ have merited this. What
a terrible thing retribution is! He will
be happy, and she will smile upon him
with all her dazzling beauty. Butt
oh, Heaven pity me! Chained to the
track-caught in the trap made by my
own hands for fellow-being. 1t is just
Heaven forgive me, and comfort my
poor"
The rumbling of the train had scarcely
died away in the distance when Julian
Wingfold, returning from the home Of
Agnes Temple, crossed the track.
He stepped where the instrument of
death had been placed, and passed on
without noticing its handiwork. If he
had but glanced down he might have
seen the two battered steel jaws, closed
now upon the lifeless hands only of his
rival, the blacksmith.
The remains were discovered on the
the following day, and the presence of
the trap told the awful story.
David ThralPs widowed mother soon
followed him to the grave.
The little smithy still stands in Mid
dletown, and the superstitious say that
at night David Thrall can be heard beat
ing steel before his forge.
Julian Wingfold is happy husband
and father now, but he never thinks of
that one nights walk without feeling
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