Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-17

| fully tending these three graves? do not
know, nor will even attempt to answer for
| her actions. / did not make her, nor will
answer for her actions. can only record
them and set things down as they appeared.
Recovering his composure in a moment
| the man stepped pace forward, parted the
rank and most luxuriant lilies, and leaning
far forward looked down with eagerness into
the mysterious deeps of the wide, deep well.
Nothing! Nothing! He saw nothing, but
certainly there was a bubbling, gurgling
sound; a something indistinct and far away.
He paused moment, and then making sure
OF his footing, leaned forward over the frag-
rant wall of lilies, painting his bosom yellow
with their shafts of gold, and listened long
and eagerly.
This time there was no mistaking the fact
that there vas some sort of disturbance or
commotion in the deep, dark stream below.
1t was almost dark now. The last ray Of
moonlight was leaving the lilies. Another
moment and the man stood there by the
three graves by the haunted well in abso-
lutte darkness. No corner is darker than a
dense copse at midnight where the rays of
the moon point through no longer. The
stars make no impression in a place like
this. You had as we'll stand in cavern
where light has never been born. .
To go away now at this time was impossi-
bic. To remain began to seem almost in
tolerable.
A sound came up from the we'll nearer
and clearer than before 1t was like the
humping Of boat or light pontoon against
a bank. Then again! He could fancy he
heard it humping against the earth at his
feet. He dared not lean forward and at
tempt to look down. Putting aside all dread
of supernatural sights and things the peril
of making single step in this profound
darkness with this chasm at his feet was
clear. He stood still; leaning back rather
than forward, his hands folded on his breast,
breathing hard, holding his lips lightly set,
and bravely, determinedly daring to await
the worst where be stood.
And now he could distinctly hear the
humping of boat; an empty boat. He was
certain that it was boat; he was certain
that it was boat of leather or canvas And
he was certain that the boat was empty. Il
would be idle to explain how he knew all
this certainly, but it is enough to say that
he knew, Nature, when you leave of your
cunning or art, is very reliable. Your
senses at such time as this are at their
best. And the best that your senses are ca
pable of you will never know till put to
trial.
John Gray had lost his dread to some ex-
tent now. Nothing supernatural was there
at all in the humping and humping of an
empty boat against the sucking OF a rising
and infowing well, and he began to specu-
late on this additional evidence in support
of his Buried River theory.
Here was a we'll or air hole. The river
flowed on under this hume to the sea. The
mouth OF this river was being closed up by
the filling in OF the Sacramento river from
the long and continued washing down Of
the Sierras by gold hunters. The tide
would turn this buried river back on itself
daily. But back Of that lay the fact that
the buried river was badly choked at the
mouth, as before explained, and when great
rains filed it from the plains 1t had hard
work in fading expression, and so flooded
its own banks.
Reasoning thus, and almost forgetting
himself in following out this pleasant solu-
tion OF the mystery he ore him, John Gray
suddenly stood as stiff and cold as if made
OF marble. Hecould not lift his hands or
even let them fall down to his side, from
where they lay folded and comfortably
doubled in with his arms across his breast
The boat was before him. But such boat