The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-01-27

room. She turned her face toward the
interior of the room, and by the light in
the doorway, which was now very dim, l
could see she made some sort of sign
with her head and hands. The other
people were not very far away. and l did
not dare to speak.
When all was quiet, and / was sure that
the fort had been closed for the night, l
lighted couple of candles, which Istuck
in little mound of sand upon the
ground, late some luncheon had brought,
and then, it being quite dark outside. 1
lighted myself through the rooms into
the courtyard, went up on the barbette,
and drew up my tools, made my way to
the chamber, where Ihad left one candle
burning, took off my coat, and speedily
set to work.
My theory was that beyond the inner
wall of this chamber, distant only few
feet, was the wall of the dungeon in the
southeast bastion which was looking
for. The space between the walls was
probably filled with sand in order to mis-
lead and deter any one who should at
tempt to penetrate through the wall of
the room I was in, and this had stopped
the work of the prisoners who had tiled
to escape. 1t was certainly ridiculous to
suppose that the whole interior of the
great bastion was either solid stone or
filled with sand.
I dug, and Idug, and I dug; shovel
ed and hoed a vast mass of sand from
the hole into the room in which stood,
but still it came down from above. /
knew, however, that there must be
limit to this continual caving in, and that
if I shovelled and hoed long enough, l
must eventually make a passage through
the sand.
Although strong, Twas unused to such
labor as this, and before long I became
very tired. lay down to rest upon a
small rubber blanket had brought, and
in few minutes was fast asleep. did
not awake until the next morning. My
candles had burned out. and I could see
the distant daylight through the door of
the room. / found myself no worse for
my sleep, for the air of the place was dry.
l did not dare to 60 out of the room I'M
til l heard the sound of voices and visitors,
for it would not be prudent for me to
make my appearance before any one had
entered the fort.
1 had waited about an hour-perhaps I
had taken another little doze-when l
heard some one approaching, In a few
moments I saw Miss Mallette at the open
door. Before I could speak she had called
to me in low tone, which had some
thing of anxiety in it. I instantly an
swered and went to her. As econ as I
entered the other room sh.. cordially
shook me by the hand and said, laughing,
Il really am glad to find you alive; l did
not know what might have happened to
you in this dreadful place."
''Nothing happened" I answered,
''and did not find the place at all dread
full
'.Well. hope you got through with
your work. she said. ''What did you
Il have discovered nothing yet, and I
have only begun my work"
'You are mistaken there" she said,
very decidedly. '.Your work in that
dark hole is finished. If you did not do
last night all that you wanted to, you will
have to leave the rest undone. l have
made up my mind that you shall not pass
another night in that place. Icould hard
ly sleep last night for thinking of it; and
when came here this morning l did not
know but that should have to 90 back
for people to dig you out from pile of
fallen sand"
'.But must go on with the work." I
said. "You don't know how I long to
get into the outer chamber which Pknow
is in this bastion."
'All that does not matter at ALL" she
said. IF you stay in here tonight l am
going to tell the sergeant"
She said this with laugh, but l knew
she meant it. "That is pretty hard on
me-" l remarked.
mot hard at ALL" she said, Ii Chilly,
my arm with the point Of her
parasol. "You can get somebody to do
the work for you; some one who is better
able to dig and to stay in place like this
than you are; some one who will come in
here at night and work just as you in
tended to, and who can easily be per-
suaded to keep the thing quiet till the
work is done. After you have made the
discovery, of course you will want every
body to know. And now let me drive
you home"
We went out together, met nobody,
and she drove me to my lodgings. That
afternoon, when called upon Miss NAL
lette, found her filled with an idea.
''You know Madame Tonnin, the little
French teacher?' said she.
knew Madame Tonnin very well. She
came every day to give French lessons to
my landlady's little boy.
eff anybody can tell who will be a
good person to do your work for you, she
cam" said Miss Mallette. s'She knows
all about the Minorcans and other white
people of the place-of course you don't
want laundering negro-and she her.
self is the very person to keep a secret.
Let us walk around to her house and
tell her about it. You know you have
got to tell somebody, or the thing can't
be done.''
did not wish to give up my original
dea, but at last l consented. I had be-
come convinced I could not do the neces-
sary digging, and if the matter was to be |
m ~, III 800 - |