Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-02

upon the sea, yet I really believe he was
afraid in that city of the dead, Of what can
not tell; but there is an awe inspired by the
silence OF great ruins, the sad unbroken
silence attendant upon their decay, and this
may have worked upon him; at any rate, he
wanted to 60 at once when he first saw the
breeze swaying the sea weed draperies to and
fro, and shaking drops Of moisture from
them that looked like diamonds in the moon
light es they fell.
In spite of the captains protestations, we
decided to ascend the walls of the city and
overlook cur surroundings before leaving,
and began our ascent at a place where they
were crumbling away. Our foothold was
not sure for moment, between the slippery
sea weed and loose stones, but we succeeded
in reaching the top of the wall, and were
well paid for our toll.
We could not, however, see the extent OF
the ruins: pile on pile they stretched away
as far as the eye could see, apparently end
less-and everywhere was that glitterine'
green covering.
Upon the mountain side we could discern
huge pile, formed like the Egyptian pyra-
mids, but larger and grander in every way.
Had We been able to reach it, do not doubt
that we should have found it to be the work
OF man, but we did not make the attempt,
for We noticed dark clouds gathering on the
horizon and moving rapidly forward.
Fearing they would soon obscure the moon
upon whose light We depended to find ou
way, we set out at once to return to the yacht.
On the road we heard a curious rumbline
noise and felt slight trembling of the earth:
SO slight, in fact, that we were at first in
clined to doubt our own senses, but another
tremor soon occurred and the fall of a tot
tering piece of masonry convinced US that We
were not mistaken.
We made all haste to reach the gate by
which we had entered, DESTROYS of escaping
from such precarious quarters as quickly as
possible, but the task Of finding it was not
such an easy one as we anticipated.
We retraced our steps, as we supposed, until
we reached the spot where the gate should
have been, according to our reckoning, but it
was not there; then it dawned upon us that
we were lost amid the ruins.
Our danger was heightened by continually
recurring tremors and rumblings in the
earth, which threatened to overthrow
somo mighty mass of stone and crush us al!
beneath it, We looked at each other in blank
dismay. What We're we to do?
Suddenly bright idea occurred to me,
and clambered up to the top of the pile OF
masonry to take an observation, and sure
enough, not fifty yards away l saw the great
open circus or race course, which we had no
ticod near the gate; hurrying across it we
soon found the path by which we had come.
Occasionally we could hear the crash of
some falling mass as it toppled down, over
thrown by the trembling earth, but this only
served to heigkten our fears and accelerate
our pace.
7 All the poetic beauty Of our surroundings,
which had SO impressed US, seemed to have
fed the moment the danger Of remaining be-
came apparent
When we reached the gate we discovered
that it had fallen, and the shock of its fall
had badly Jared the surroundings, causing
the overthrow Of several pillars and com.
petely blocking up that mode of egress,
The wall here was in much more perfect
state of preservation than in the place we had
climbed before, and it seemed an impossible
ity to mount its perpendicular sides.
Fortunately one of the pillars, whose fall
had barred our way, lay diagonally against
the wall, and we decided to crawl along its
sides and reach the top by that means.
Capt. Jack, being a sailor and consequent
ly the best climber, went first.
Had our position been less serious we
would have had the heartiest of laughs at
him, but as it was, we were in no laughing
humor, and knew we would all have to go
through the same performance.
The pillar was quite smooth, and, being
covered with seaweed, very slippery Just
how many times we almost reached the top.
only to slide back again, l haven't the
slightest idea, but it was more than once
We finally reached the top of the wall only
to como to a stand still as regards mode of
descent upon the other side It was fully
twenty-five feet high at the lowest point, and
a drop of twenty-five feet is not pleasant
prospect.
At Capt Jacks suggestion we removed our
coats, and, knotting the sleeves together,
formed short rope. He held this while Ned
and l hung from it and dropped, but then
came the question, how was he to get down
Ned and i scraped together a lot Of sea-
weed and piled it up, making a sort of cush-
ion for him to fall upon. He jumped and
landed upon the stuff, but managed to turn
his ankle, SO that he beguiled the rest of our
way with groans and profanity, but it must
have been very painful, for he was laid up
for fortnight with it afterward
We tried to support him as we went along,
and managed tolerably well, for we were
fortunate enough to come upon the road
leading to tbs cliff, from which we had first
caught sight of the ruins We expected to
get along easily for the rest of the way, but
the clouds that had been rising obscured the
moon, leaving US in almost total darkness
To add to the interest of our unenviable
position, fragments of volcanic stone and
lava began dropping about US, and, looking
back, we could see red glow upon the sum-
nit of one of the mountains behind the city,
which momentariiy increased in intensity as
broad river of molten lava flowed down the
mountain side.
We stumbled on, guided by the sound of
the water, which was becoming rather rough,
as the breeze which we had felt in the ruins
steadily grew in strength. We must have
lost the road again, for the way began to
grow rougher, eliciting groans from the poor
captain.
Ned started on ahead to lead Us, but scarce
" minute after we lost sight of him in the
darkness he began TO halloo for help. Fol
lowing the sound of his voice we discovered
him struggling in quicksand, into which be
was rapidly sinking. We tugsed and strained
with all our might to release him, but
thought we never could. At last, with
herculean effort, we got him free, with the
loss of his boots, but it must have cost poor
Capt. Jack an awful pang, for he ceased
swearing and sat down, utterly exhausted.
We started on again, and in = few moments
the welcome sight of the cliff greeted our
eyes. Hurrying on, we rounded the pro-
montory, but stood aghast when we found
the waves beating agai lst its further side
where the stone wharf had been before. The