Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-11-06

| to speak III careless accents OF el1-pOS
session. 'but l expected to see m,
brother-Mr. Hall. Isn't he here2"
The stranger regarded her sullenly.
'What are you doing here?" said he
Didn't you know better than to Gomez
Annis tried to laugh, and pass matters
off as an excellent joke.
'I-I thought you would be glad tc
see me, " said She "And Janie-"
"Jamie has gone up into the clouds,
said the stranger, with a short, sharl
laugh. "That's where he goes every
day. And l stay here to keep the Evi
Spirit away You are the Evil Spirit
That's what you aren
The furtive eyes lightened, the teetl
clinched themselves together, as, witt
one stride, the young man cleared the
space between them and grasped her by
the arm.
sect out of this" he thundered.
cor, mol You'll be sure to come back
again. / must make sure against that.
There's a bear trap on the hill. bear
starved to death there, last winter
caught by one paw. We found his
skeleton this spring. Pll fasten you into
the trap and leave you there. That's
the way to dispose of evil spirits"
Annie uttered a scream. She knew
now that she was alone in the wilderness
with madman.
Jamie! Jamie!" she shrieked, hang
ing back from his iron grip with all her
might.
"There's no use calling for him." glib
bered the half witted youth. ''Don't l
tell you he has gone into the Clouds"
| 'Is-is he dead2"
The man made no reply, but dragged
her mercilessly through the woods, NUT
tering to himself as he went and break
ing into occasional peals Of harsh laugh
| ter.
"No," he said, suddenly-"no! The
bear trapis too small. You might drag
it away with you and escape. Evil
spirits are always sly and strong. There's
Rattiesnake Cave-that will be prison
that no one can escape from"
He made u sudden detour to the left,
crashing through a low, swampy growth
of cedars and tamaracks until he reached
stupendous mass of rocks, piled to-
| gether as if in the the mad confusion of
some glacial period.
With what seemed almost superhumar
strength, he pushed her into a black,
yaWning recess; and before she could
find voice to demonstrate, he had rolled
| a monster stone against the mouth of hel
living sepulchre, and vanished amid the
! gloomy evergreens.
The whole thing had been done SO
| quickly that Annis could scarcely believe
her own senses when she found herself
alone in the wild fastness of rocks, with
deadly chill enveloping her like {
shroud, and the sound of dropping watel
filling the silence with its melanchol,
iteration.
In vain she exerted her whole strength
to push back the huge doorway of stone
in vain she screamed for help until the
grim place seemed alive with echoes.
Prisoned here by maniac, and left tc
die miserable death by lingering star
vation! Cold sweat burst from ever
pore in her body at the grisly possibility
She sank helplessly to the ground, bu
the rock was wet, and something
might have been rain.soaked leaves o
wet moss, but it reminded her unpleas
antly of the gliding, clammy reptil
from which the spot had derived it
udlllC--Culllt III COuluCJ Will llCE lOuCll
and she struggled to her feet once NOR
! with gasping cry.
, Yet if she were indeed doomed to die
, were it not better by the poisoned fan!
of serpent than by slow agonies c
+ starvation
The day crept on. A single sunbear
made its way like golden iavelil
through the creyiccs of rock, and thel
vanished. The sound of the slow fallin:
water-drops nearly drove her crazy, eX
cept when her attention was momentaril
distracted by the sound of the distan
axe.
The wind sighed in the tree-tops,
strange, gliding, rustling sound at he
, feet aroused all sorts of horrible possibil
, ities. A singular drowsiness stole upol
her; she found herself laughing out lou
at some witticism she could not remem
beb and uttering incoherent sentence
, to Damaris or her mother, whose shri
intonations frightened even herself bt
fore she could finish them.
cam going crazy" she asked her
self, Gin this horrible place But
i must be, because-because that ism
Jamie whistling Bonnie Dundee thu
, can't be. Jamie-oh, Jamie ~
, The faint cry died away into the for
est sounds. Al other sounds seemed
to merge themselves into the horribl
drip drip of the falling water, and sh
knew no more.
X
eyes, it was narrow squeak" sale
James Hall. "If | hadn't come homt
that way, by the merest chance in life
it would all have been up with Annis
1t was one of Clarence Stuart's ugly days
always left him alone on those days.
] Ii NNnrlnl hnst Nhr liln,t TIL non