Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-04-03


reasoned with him, as one might rea-
son with a runaway child, and ten
derly took him in his arms aboard
the boat.
Alas, the warnings were wasted
For, almost as soon as we had land
ed, that capricious cave-dog disap-
peared again and, as before, refus-
ed to obey our loudest summons.
Compassion was now mixed with in
dignation, and we left him to his
fate.
Nothing was seen of him all that
day; and this time of deliberate
choice, he remained a second night
underground.
And now comes, perhaps the
strangest part of my story. On the
following morning, Jack, too, was
missing. The guides had to dis
pense with their customary canine
escort. On arriving, however, at
the Iron Gate, three hundred yards
within the cave, they found Jack
just outside, and Brigham behind
the bars; and there the dogs stood,
wagging their tails, and apparently
exchanging the news
Our curiosity led us to examine
Brigham's tracks, to see by what
route he had found his way back.
Beginning at the Echo River, we had
no difficulty in seeing that he had,
step by step, followed our trail his
only guide, of course, being the sense
of smell. Here, his tracks were
deeply printed in soft mud, and
there, more sharply defined ON the
mellow banks of nitrous earth, less
distinctly along ridges of sand, or
over heaps of stone, or up steep
stair-ways.
Thus Brigham had followed us,
through darkness deeper than that Of
midnight, along the narrow beach of
Lake Lethe, across the treacherous
natural bridge spanning the River
StyX, up to the galleries overhanging
the Dead Sea, through the wild con-
fusion of Bandits Hall, and by many
a spot where one misstep would have
sent the poor, lonely creature plung-
ING downward in darkness to inevi-
table death.
1t will be remembered that we had
gone in past the Giants Coffin, by
the arched way among the deep pits,
and through the mazes leading to
River Hall. But we had come out
by newly discovered mode of exit,
through an intricate set of assures,
known, on account of its winding ma
ture, as ''The Corkscrew." We pre-
ferred thiAz- -hnnause it saved mile
and a half of t,,s.-ol. Our fOur-foOt-
ed friend, pursuing the freshest scent
went, of course, up the Corkscrew.
The opening is too irregular to be
called pit or shaft. Yet it winds
upward for distance, vertically, of
about one hundred and fifty feet; but
fully five hundred feet, as one climbs,
creeping through crevices, twisting
through "auger-holes,' and scaling
precipitous rocks scattered in the
widest confusion imaginable. Three
ladders have to be mounted in thread
ing this passage. One emerges, at
last, on the edge of cliff overlook
ing the main cave, and down which
he chambers to the level floor, where
the road runs smoothly along to the
Iron Gate, quarter of mile dis
tant.
Only think of it! Through all this
intricate and hazardous pass, where,
without guide, we should have found
| it difficult to make our way, even
with lamps and a map of the cave,
that yellow dog had safely gone
alone He offered no explanation of
his proceedings, nor told us what mo-
tive prompted his independent excur-
sions. But that was his affair, not
ours. We honored him as a hero,
and obtained for him, from the man.
ager, Mr.. Francis Klett, the freedom
of the cave for the rest of his life
| III. G. HoUey, IN st. Nicholas.