Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-05-05

as ! faced tan advantage for him, a
terrible peril for me.
resolved to back toward the wall at
the upper end of the room, and guided
still by the ticking of my watch, / drew
back with the stealthy caution Of a cat.
Suddenly saw the gray seam of light
again. Had he zone to the right or left:
/ knew not. Quickly / stretched my
foot out behind me: / felt something. and
for the instant thought ! had touched
the fellow, bat. IA turning about Igroped
my hand forward, | encountered the
cold woodwork of the bedstead. 1t was
II of the carved pillars. | drew myself
up, and put my hack against it. Now,
at least, that dreaded stab in the back
was less probable.
am not a coward. yet I own that the
terror of the following minutes thrills me
now as | look back upon it. The inn
penetrable darkness, the silence rendered
only more intense by contact with the
perpetual tic-tac. ~tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac,
tic-tac of the watch behind me. were
made terrific by the awful uncertainty Of
my position.
stood there waiting for the attack,
until, the suspense growing intolerable,
i felt that j must end it by shouting
aloud to Brace, and precipitating the final
struggle.
II will wait five minutes longer, and
no more" | said to myself. resolving to
calculate the space fairly, and with due
allowance for false impressions. ! cal
cu!ated that two minutes had passed,
when ! fancied | heard the bed creak be-
hin me. Was this one of the false inn
pressions / had promised myself to guard
against, or was the sound caused by the
man mounting upon the bed behind me?
The hair bristled upon my head as I
thought heard the creak repeated; vet
/ stood there, and counted another min
ute, with every nerve and fibre prepared
TO spring away.
"Now, surely four minutes are up" ]
thought, and drew my head down into
my shoulders, for, as surely as if my eyes
had been turned that way, and the fun
light of the sun shining in the room, l
kncD that the man was behind mo on the
bed.
drew q deep inspiration, resolved to
shout my loudest to Brace, but before
the sound had passed my lips a towel was
drawn tight upon my face, and my head
jerked back against the post behind me.
A fold of the towel gagged me complete
ly; it was with difficulty / breathed. l
struggled, but in vain, to wrench myself
away; a quick and sure hand had knotted
the towel. / threw w my hands to tear
the thing off; in an instant they were en-
veloped in the thick curtains, and though
the fellow had not sufficient strength TO
tie them down to my side, he al least
bailled my attempts 10 free my head. /
drew my feet from the ground, hoping
that my weight would drag my head
from the towel; only succeeded in draw
ing the knots tighter, and half stTangling
myself.
AS | could not release my head, I got
my arms down, and tried TO seize the
rascal's feet, but he kept them beyond
my reach; yet l got something by the
attempt, for, in cropping about, l laid my
hand upon the knife which he had thrust
in the bed, to have free use OF his hands,
the better to overcome the res stance OF
my arms. j should nave had no hesita-
ton in ham-stringing the rascalif l could
have got at his legs, hut as | could not do
that. l determined, if possible, TO keep
the knife out of his way.
felt, by the horn handle, that il was
the n Van Hoeck had given me; and.
knowing the trick of the blade, | shut it
up, and slipped it into my pocket.
Now" thought /, "if only thews and
sinews are concerned, we will see who
can get the best of it,"
And with r~edoubled efforts, I struggled
to tear down the bed-curtains that ham
pered my movements. and, maddened by
the difficulty Of respiration, | threw such
force into my efforts, hat the pole upon
which they hung crunched under the
rings. and finally came rafting down
about us. Would that the lamp had
been near, TO be smashed by the fali
The noise was too slight TO Ike heard at a
distance.
NJ ~ Z - lLs.- -. On -
Ear ,he knot OF the towel that bound me
u the post. a Lony hand grasped my
wrist, ana dragged it over my shoulder,
and the next moment | felt something
pressed under my hose, and n liquid
trlChllnG through my mustache ON to my
hps. II had Il sweet taste, and a strong
smell ol apples, that mounted At once TO
my Dram. ] seemed 10 Dc 10 longer
touching the ground, but whirling round
and round through space; my arms drop
ped by my side.
/ knew that was powerless, yet | re-
tanned a certain kind Of consciousness. /
was sensible that the difficulty OF breath
ing no longer troubled me. / knew that
the man was binding my arms TO the
post, and / remember thinking, in the
unused manner of a half intoxicated per-
son, what a fool he must be to bind me
when l could no longer make resistance.
l was perfectly conscious when he began
to tie my feet to the post below. for | had
then sufficiently overcome the effect Of
the opiate to think of resistance. tried
to struggle and TO scream, but to no pur-
pose; my will had lost all power over my
muscle. And this terrible impotency re-
minded me Of Van Hoeck's ~half-uttered
simile: ''Cramped in a coffin, and the
clOdS falling-falliuCv
What astOnished me was the surprising
facility with which the nan executed his
work in the darkness that then prevailed.
He seemed to have no difficulty at all in
finding the ends Of the sheets with which
he bound me-, and knotting them secure
ly. And when l was safely pinioned, he
unbuckled the strap that bound the Great
Hesper TO my wrist, without having to
seek for the tongue Of the strap, as / my
self might have had to do.
"Well, that's gone" l said to myself:
land, now he has the diamond, he will
90 too"
But he had not yet finished. And af-
ter a brief interval, during which he
might have been buckling the Great Hes
per upon his own wrist. / heard u sound
that / knew only too we'll