Nevada County picayune., 1888-05-23
A NARROW ESCAPE. wy Thrilling Adventure with a
 Dangerous Maniac.

oe seen when the moon Is full ant low ill the heavens. The Ohio wa. the color of dull steel for the mos part, and the little spccks of darke gray upon it's breast were slabs 0 ice slowl y sailing with the current The shadow of the bow hills fringet with trees. between whose trunks ant laced boughs the last faint flood 0 ! daylight strcamcd from the West i fell black upon the farther short l of the river. Only the reflections o1 the trees upon the hill-tops made tn, nearest limit of the shadow littl, ! blurred.
 Up the river you could see the or ange glow of the gas flambeaux ano the ruddicr blaze of the forges begin, ing to paint the sky. Down the river great mist. sad-colored like ! Quakers coat, swallowed up the river and made it's margins faint and wavv. There was hardly a dash of cheerful ness in the whole landscape. The few houses in sight had their eyes shut; through their windows come no welcome streams or yellow light.
 It was sad and gray, and very still The crunching of small ice Hoes with their stationary fellows caught in the shadows and hcldtight by the shore, ice was the only sound.
 As l stood watching the evening wrap the valley and blot out all that was good to look at in the vlew over land and water, and after l had made about seven hundred and seven ty seven comparative cal eulations on the time of day and the time and according to the Fort Wayne railroads cdict and being tolerably nervous and irritable as l was. was surprised to hear q voice of unusual depth and hollow nes cxcIaim, almost in my ear: Why the mans crazy.
 Quite m astonishing occurrence, if you will be pleased to remember that l was standing on q decidedly lonely way station between this city and Sewicklcy.
 turned around and found myself face to face with a thick sturdy fel- low, whose scrubby, black beard at once impressed me as the most re- markablc part of his make up. He had g pair of bright restless eyes ano wore his hat so far tilted back on hi, head that l could make out he had a square forehead and plenty of dark curly hair
 Were you speaking to mel said
 Yes" he answered, Hook at that boat out there if he's aiming at cut ting new channel for himself he all right but that man'll he aground in couple of shakes of a lamb : tail.
 And then noticed for the first time that a tow-boat had just round- eel the bend. the outline of which was now nearly lost in the darkness and was coming down closely hug oing the south shore, She had q tow evidently for the red and green lights nickcred far ahead of her bows. nav, looking more steadily you could see mans form picked bodily out in silhouette against the boat $ furn- ace. He was standing it appeared, in the air one hundred feet ahead of the boat; but of course he really stood upon the gunwale of one Of the harpcs. still the black profile of the boatman was unpleasantly spec tral.
 1 observed that it was getting very dark. Before. l had merely hoped in mild sort of way that the train which was to take me tO town would moi be ahnormally late. Now l sud denly made up my mind that l hac to he at the office as quickly as posi- ble. As said before, the darkness was getting palpablc, the landscape spectral. and the strange man WILL the short scrubhy beard and the bright. ever moving eyes were talking on at a prodigious rate about the crazincss of the pilot on that tow.
 To put it mildly, was slightly scared,
 I moved away from the sturdy stranger, not quickly but by degrees He was still talking, and I'm sorry to say that his language was not choice It was forcible and fiery and if that pilot in hls little castle ol the hurricane deck which looked SC warm and luxurious, could have