Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-06-29

tween my teeth, l now commenced to
climb up in real earnest. Up I went,
hand over hand, till l became quite
tired, when / took the stick out of my
mouth, pushed it through one of the
links, and chung to it with both hands.
After resting for second or two L held
on with nv knees and feet, took the
stick in my hand, and placed it through
another link as high up as could reach.
/ then raised myself up breast high
this did again and again, till became
quite exhausted. So l took the end of
the rope which hung over my shoulder,
threaded it through the link, gave it a
turn or two round the chain, and sat
down in the loop. 1 looked below me,
could not see the bottom; but was quite
certain that had mounted about TWEEN
ty feet. / looked aloft and fancied |
could make out a kind of landing ten or
fifteen feet overhead. So, after resting
in the sling for short time, l loosed it
and climbed upward with all my might.
Up and up l went, when just as my
strength was beginning to give way al
together arrived at the landing, scram-
bled on to it and lay down, for was
qultc uOno up.
How LILY poor bones did ache! Every
joint in my body felt as if I had been
on the rack. noticed the moonlight
streaming through a loop-hole-hke aper-
ture about seven inches wide and three
feet high. I opened my dark lantern
and surveyed the cave. Sure enough I
was in the smugglers' den, for there lay
a row of small kegs ranged along the
wall, partially covered with old rotten
sacks and a tarpauling. could sit still
no longer, so up got and overhauled
the place. 1t took me some time to pry
into all the hooks and crannies. I soon
became exhausted again, so 1 sat down
and made the following inventory of
stock in my notebook: Twenty five
casks, different sizes; forty jars, large
and small; two large boxes; ten small
do; ropes, blocks, chains, baskets,
cans, lamps, etc. While sitting writing
got great start by hearing sort Of
moaning sound quite close to me and
seemingly inside the cave. l fancied
some unfortunate smuggler's ghost had
risen in judgment against me for plum
dering his hoard. I looked anxiously
around me. My eye was attracted to
the arrow-shot hole, and there sat the
great white owl with a pigeon in its
claws. threw stone at it, and hiss
ing wickedly it flew away. Inow heard
the water gurgling at the foot of the
well-hole and knew the tide must be
rising in it. Then l heard Dugald
whistling to attract my attention. got
up, took long string, and tying stone
to one end of it let it down the shaft.
When drew it up l was considerably
astonished to find that the tide had risen
about four feet since | came up, and
that was up about thirty feet. This
greatly alarmed me at first, for 1 saw
that my retreat was cut off, and that L
could not possibly effect my escape just
then. I Gained myself down, and after
a little reflection made up my mind to
remain contentedly where | was all
night, till next low water. So took
piece of paper and wrote on it, $50
home! Keep quiet! and come back
again tomorrow morning, at low wa
ter''-tied it to the stone, got up into
the window place and lowered it down
on the outside. The arrow-slit was too
narrow for me to get way into it. |
could not see the boat so close in to the
foot of the cliff, but heard the splash
of the oars, so pulled the stone up and
down to attract attention, and soon had
the satisfaction of feeling .Dugald tug
ging at it; when l hauled it in the paper
was gone.
| now commenced to take a more
minute survey of the cave. 1t was pref
ty roomy; widening toward the back,
where it branched off into two short
wings. directed the light of my bulls
eve to the vaulted roof, which was from
thirteen to seventeen feet high, to see
how the chained was fixed. 1t passed
over the wheel of a large pulley, and
was fastened to a strong ring bolt at the
farther end of the floor. | noticed that
the chain had been we'll painted and
vanished, and was wonderfully sound
considering the length of time it must
have hung. | designed to fasten
block and tackle to the chain to facili-
tate my descent. While running the
light over the roof 1 noticed something
hanging from it. Upon inspecting it
more infinitely l saw that it was a very
small key hoisted up to small block.
The end of the rope was made fast to
an iron staple stuck in the wall about
ten or twelve feet from the floor. II
raised cask on end and placed small
Ter one on the top of it, then mounted
on the top of them and began to UNI
fasten the rope to lower down the little
keg. | had barely laid my hand on the
rope when it broke, and down came the
keg with clash and clang to the
floor where it was shivered into a thou
sand pieces. L fell from my perch with
fright. While I lay sprawling on the
ground, my hands came in contact with
some pieces of money. sprang to my
feet and threw the light of the lamp on
the floor. 1 jumped for joy! 1t was
literally covered with gold and silver
coins. l gathered them up hastily and
as carefully as 1 could into heap, set
the lamp on stone beside me, and sat
down to count them. 1 had found not
only cave but mine of gold. reck-
oned 200 gold pieces and seventeen
pounds in silver. then got up again
and searched the floor more closely for
stray pieces, of which I found nine or
ten. This was exciting work and be-
came very thirsty, so took my knife