Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-09-06

1 q
was arrested. Don Rafael felt a sud-
den chill that penetrated the very mar
row of his bones and CONCEALED his
blood. He comprehended the horrible
| plot. Jose was going to cut the cable
and dash him to a mass of lifeless,
| shapeless flesh by fall of six hundred
yards to the bottom Of the shaft.
Directing a look of desperation
toward the nearest wall, he perceived
projecting from it, half yard or lit
tie more, a piece of timber that had
served to support a scaffold.
To cast the torch to the bottom of
! the shaft, swing himself upon that
treacherous support, and detach HIM
| self from the cable was the work
of a few seconds, and hardly had
he accomplished it when the cable
| parted far above, and fell with a great
| splashing noise into the water almost
| two thousand feet below Involuntarily
a cry of terror escaped him, which was
| answered at the mouth of the shaft
with a sarcastic and savage horse-laugh
that, in spite of himself, made him
| tremble.
Afterward profound silence reigned,
| and Don Rafael, submerged in dark
! ness, remained seated on that frail
piece of wood, vacillating over that
enormous abyss, into which the slightest
| circumstance might hurl him, with the
certainty of being dashed to fragments
at the bottom.
The silence was broken only by the
creaking of ropes, the water dripped
from the ascending buckets, and oc-
casionally by the smothered con-
cussion of the miners tools some
where in the black depths below. But,
suddenly, among these divers sounds,
was distinguished one that filled Don
RafaeI'with horror.
The wooden perch on which he was
seated began to manifest signs of break
ing!
Time and moist air had caused de-
| cay, and the timber was yielding
under his weight. In effecting his
| safety he had only prolonged little
while his agony.
Pressing closely against the wall, he
| tried to find some fissure in the rock
for his hands; but his fingers were only
torn by the pitiless rock, which re-
fused to permit any diminution of the
weight on his fragile perch in this
| manner.
Presently, a lugubrious chant swelled
up from the depths of the shaft-an
| immense sound of human voices that
seemed a cry of agony wrenched from
many hearts by the pain of toll. 1t
was the 0ldbGd0 which is sung by the
miners upon the death of one of their
| fraternity-a melancholy medley of
ages and lamentations that forms a
kind of sorrowful and pathetic melody
with which those who are condemned to
| incessant labor to the end of life salute
the happy departure of an emancipated
soul.
Already notice of the supposed death
of Don Rafael had arrived in those sub
terranean caverns, and all the habi-
tants of the mine were chanting the
song of praise, which also was the song
of mourning. Meanwhile the
| treacherous beam on which Don Rafael
sat, hearing, far below the song that
announced his own death, was crack
| ingi
The sad cadence of that song, melo-
! dious and mournful, like a psalm at
| the threshold of the tomb, ceased, and
the muffied sound of the stream cables,
going up with water and returning for
more, seemed to Don Rafael a pendu-
lum marking the moments of his de-
| parting life.
The fragile beam was already in
Ginning toward the horrible depth of
the abyss; the bands of Don Rafael
were grasping the jagged points of
rock with desperation; the moment of
his precipitation to a horrible death
was very near. Suddenly the sound of
many voices came from the mouth of
the shaft. The criminal had notified
| the directory of an accident. and all the
employees came to see the body of the
administrator brought from the bottom
Of the shaft.
Looking up, Don Rafael saw a
rapidly descending torch. In the next
moment a man suspended on a cable
of descent, with his back toward him,
| passed his fearful perch. 1t
was the cajonero, Jose.
! Instantly Don Rafael sprang from
his perch and seized the cable, some
| distance above the man atthe end of it.
| This movement lossened the beam from
| its anchorage and it fell. The noise
and the movement of the cable caused
Jose to look up. Seeing Don Rafael
he commenced to blaspheme, and hold
| ing a dagger between His teeth, to
climb toward him. Between the two
men there was space of some twenty
| yards, and while Jose assembled Don
Rafael fastened himself in a stirrup of
cable that was swinging violently.
AS the torch was impeding the ascent
of Jose, he cast it to the bottom, and
the shaft was again in darkness.
Seeing that the light was extinguish-
ed, the employees feared some new ac-
cident, and began to haul up the cable
with great rapidity.
Having secured his position, Don
Rafael drew from his pocket a clasp
| knife and tried to cut the cable below
him. He could hear the labored
breathing of his adversary, who COM
pretended the design of the admins
! traitor, and was asserting his utmost
strength to gain the position of the
latter in time to avert his own plunge
to the bottom of the abyss to which
| he had short time before, dispatched
| the man who had so strangely, es-
capped the intended death. The duel in
| the darkness between the two combat
ants suspended by a cord over that horri-
BILE abyss was prosecuted by both with
equal haste and desperation. Each
knew that his own escape from that
frightful situation depended on the de-
struction of the other; yet each was
losing the consciousness Of his own
peril in his struggle to dispatch his
| foe.
The cajonero was so near that Don