The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-07-09

and painfully got of one of my heavy
boots and then the other, and dropped
the first on to the belfry ceiling SO far
below. The bells rang on; my young
hope paled and ilickered. perhaps the
boot fell on the upper side; must make
the heel strike first" said, ''they will
hear that" and carefully launched my
other boot, sole downward. Still that
internal tumult beat and batter ed down
upon me. 'Curse on the oafs,"
screamed inaudibly, ''they are drunk,
drunk, the sots!'' and left off to clutch
the log and walled like newborn
child.
How long remained thus spent and
unnamed knew not; but the love OF
life is strong. and presently. when the
light was well-nigh faded out of the sky.
q new device was born in my brain.
'The second boot as the first" l said
to myself, fell on its soft upper side
and bounded of. No wonder they did
not hear it. This will fall with a more
piercing crack; it may even break a
way through some rotten spot in the
boards" and detaching my watch
from its chain, with 3 beating heart
and all my lost remnants of strength
and nerve mustered and hanging on
the cast, poised it moment, opened
my fingers, and it vanished.
There was moments suspense and
then all was still. The awful racket in
which my torn and harrassed brain had
rceled and cruched as 1t seemed through
such interminable ages suddenly ceased.
Warm tears gushed from eyes and lay
glittering in the gloom in great drops
on the beam. and there l lay painting
and whispering, so outworn and feeble
that even in that great silenceI did not
hear my own words: ''Thank God!
Thank God! my prayeris heard"
But still the tower jerked and swaycd
and the wind blew gusty and chill. Il
will get to the ladders and go down to
meet them," though: l, '.perhaps they
have gone for rope" and turning
over half rose to my feet. l fell fiat
again. not by hair breadth too soon;
the great bells were still beating and
believing, jangling, swinging and
9uivering over my head without
any pause just as before; and l. I
heard not sound of it, nor shall l ev r
hear again for evermore till 1 hear tie
trumpet Of the Judgment Angel.
There then l lay space longer,
whether minutes or hours know not,
for time was for me no longer; and
half in trance of exhaustion. half in
a stupor of despair. l lay all along. and
glared hOpclessly into the vault. But /
knew by the pulsing of my perch that
the fierce ringing of the bells still was
answered by the quivering and jar of
the walls and of my beam. Some hid
den law of the construction of the
building caused my beam to reach its
lowest point of vibration just as Bart
lemy swept over it, and when he was
inverted ut the limit of his swing, then
it was that the stay bumped itself to its
highest. This motion had saved my
life, else l must have been cut off into
the void mere shattered heap with the
first descent of the bell. And yet why
should have chung to life? At that
moment had as lIeve have died. But
still the buckling of the stay raised me
up and down and mechanically my
despairing fingers clutched it as stran-
gler gripes his victim.
Suddenly something touched me on
the back; then again finger seemed to
be lightly drawn fraction of an inch
across me. covered lower and lower
at this new terror, and did not feel it a
third time. No! there it is again; rhyth-
mically. evenly, incxorably laying itself
upon me again and again. as if the an.
gel of death himself were marking me
for destruction. Ateach touch l thought
it fell more heavily. nor could any
longer shrink away from that strange
ghostly hand. Then suddenly felt it
hot as we'll as heavy, hot as a hand of
fire. The new horror cast out the old,
and all my wits bent themselves in the
darkness upon that one weird visitation.
Ha! l had it. The hours of ringing had
heated Bartlemy and the clapper 81 the
bell was frightening. Thousands #
strokes of iron on iron had made th..t
tongue so hot that it had expanded by
little and little, until now it reached
down across my little marg!ne of safety,
and his-Bartlemy's-was the finger
that touched me so rhythmically, pres
sing heavier and heavier as it reached
further and further down. and in very
truth the hand was the hand of death.
And death looked me straight in the
eyes remorseless and uncompromising.
Unless heaven interviewed to help me,
my life was to be measured by minutes,
and was to die by inches.
Perhaps heaven did help me; for now
over the shoulder of one of the higher
bells, by which it still suffered moment
airy eclipses, the moon began to shine
in on me through the louvres. And as
l gazed about for help in the new light
with fevered and fcar-stricken eyes. /
caught sight of the nearest of the bell
ropes, running down quivering silver
, cord and losing itself in the solid night
below. It rose and fell as the brawny
ringers arms pull ed it. l looked aloft
and saw it was GATHERINGS, the second
BELLS rope. and the ringer of Catherine
l knew was Roger. my second son. l
think that gave me hope, and indeed
my peril was now so near that delay
and design would in a moment more be
my ruin. My coat was torn to shreds,
and hot furrow was being scared
deeper and deeper in my shoulder with
every stroke. Slowly. and crouching
as close as a lizard, writhed along the
beam. But in this way 1 could make
but little progress, for before my body
was clear of the pursuing pendulum Of
Bartlemy's clapper. the way was cut
across by the steady sweep of his neigh
Dor bell, and between that and tho
beam was no hope of passage for me,
l dropped over the side, and. clinging
with feet and hands to the under
side of the beam. wormed pain