The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1882-04-26

these dungeons where captives taken in
the petty warfare of those times felt the
personal vengeance of their captorsP ?
He thought of the one described in
" Ivanhoe," into which Isaac the Jew
was thrown, damp, dark, hung with
chains and shackles, and where in the
ring OF one set of fetters we're two mold
ering human bones. It was no wonder
ghosts were said to haunt place like
that.
In the midst Of these thoughts the
gate he had left open swung to with q
clang, shutting out earthly things be-
hind him. Step by step he went down
the stone stairs into blackness to which
the night outside was twilight. Some
times he seemed to hear q sound, but
when he stopped to listen it was the
beating Of bis heart. When he reached
the foot of the stairs he still went on;
every now and then his outstretched
hands struck against a wall or pillar,
for he was passing through an arched
hall that ended in q narrow passage.
He next entered what he thought must
be large room, for the air had an in
defnable difference and the blackness
seemed that of space instead of sub
stance. AS he stood there uncertain
which way to move and the very echo
of his footsteps ceased, the horror of
darkness and silence which had been
growing upon him reached its height.
He tried to utter his challenge, but his
dry lips would give forth no sound, an
abyss of night seemed to swallow him
up.
Suddenly he fancied he heard move
ment, he thought that something like
palpable blackness fitted about him.
He turned to fly and took few hurried
steps in the direction of the entrance.
Then he stopped. 1t was no ghostly
presence that arrested him, but the
iron hand of his resolution he had
come here to do a certain thing and
was not to be cowed by q feeling which
he would be ashamed to own to himself
in the daylight. He faced about and
went forward quickly few steps.
"If there is any ghost let him now
appear" he called loudly.
The dreary walls answered his cry
with dull reverberation.
With arms folded he stood moment
the hardest thing of all to do-await-
ing results. If there had not been q
roar in his ears, if the beating of his
heart had not made even his vision un-
steady, he would have said that he
heard subdued laughter, or moaning, it
was impossible to tell which as the
sound rolled toward him from the hol-
low sides, and that he saw something
like whiteness in the distance, while a
sense of presence made him cold with
horror.
He had done all he had resolved to
do and was free now to get out of this
dreadful place. He hurried toward
the entrance, urged on by the unreason-
ing sense of pursuit that comes over one
when he turns his back upon danger.
all at once he lost his footing and lay
at full length on the slippery floor; the
shock, however, only Jared and be
wildered him. AS he put out his
hands to rise he touched something
from which he drew back instantly with
stihed exclamation; he thought it
must be one of the reptiles likely to
be crawling in this den. But he recol-
lected that it was small and hard, per-
uhDb IL WAS u bbOAC MhlCA hOulO
prove his nights excursion if the
strangers he was with should be tempt
ed to doubt it. After little cropping
he found it again; it felt like stone
covered with Shiny moisture, and put
ting it into his pocket he made his way
out of the ruins as best he could.
When he returned to the house his
friend was alone waiting for him, and
sleepy, as Homer could see, conse-
quently trife annoyed at being kept
up so late. The guest said nothing
that night of where he had been,
In his room he took out the stone.
1t was not pebble or piece of the
pavement, as he had supposed, but an
oval OF grayish lava that had once been
a brooch or part of bracelet. AS he
cleaned it with his penknife and pocket
handkerchief he saw that the work upon
it was beautiful; it was figure of
Minerva, the very folds in her tunic
carefully cut, and, as he saw by his
magnifying- glass, with q light tracery
of carving on her hemlet and shield.
On the opposite side, just under the
shield, was the word Violet"
1t was evidently the owners name,
but who was she? Where did she live,
and whenP The pin, if it were pin,
had not lain in its last hiding-place
long, he thought, it was not enough
stained by the dampness, yet he was
not sure about that. "Violet might
belong to former generation or might
have been sleeping the sleep of the just
for a century. But suppose not, sup.
pose she were young lady beautiful
as her name, wealthy and high born
Well, what thenP
Homer put out his light and went t.
bed, but not Immediately to sleep. Th'
affair seemed to promise an adventure
as such it would have been interesting
to any young person. But Ashton, il
addition to being barely twenty five
had been obliged to make his way TO
the last ten years for though he wa