Wichita eagle., 1890-02-02

house he knew had been built BY the
Fontaines on Or near the original Heath
homestead. The covered entrance, there
fore, to the secret vault could not be
many rods removed from it. Beginning
in the cellars, he subjected every foot
of ground within an acre of the
house to probing and digging. The
ground was rocky. 1t was impos-
sibie to guess how deep the en-
trance had been covered by the fall
ing walls of the house. Obliged to work
secretly, and much of the time at night,
it is no wonder that years passed with
his task yet unfinished.
A man does not sink into the nature
of greedy, soulless polypus at one I'M
broken fall. There were times when
Leonard Heath came up out of the pits
of yellow clay in which he dug, and
stood staring with dulled eyes down the
sunny slopes of grass dotted with gold
en- dandelions, or into the dusky lines
Of forest trees that shut him in. He
had never, in his best moments, been a
man akin to nature, or cognizant of her
secrets, yet there weighed upon him
now a sense of bitter loss-of having
fallen below the level of manhood by
some unknown misstep which he could
never regain. He would walk feebly
about while, as though trying to grope
at some lost idea, and then go back to
his grubbing again.
Sometimes, on quiet Sunday after
moons, a group Of young mechanics
with their sweethearts would saunter
down the lane and into the woods
their CAV dresses all a-futter in the sun
and wind, and their chatter and laugh
ter echoing through the trees. Now, the
old man, as they called him, was in the
habit of following the boys about who
came nutting there, and try very tim
idly to join in their talk ca jokes, but
when these lovers came he hid himself
in the house, out of all sight and hear
ing of them.
One winter the old man was missed;
there was little shop where he was
used to 90 to buy a bit of meat or can
Csies: he showed himself but once or
twice at the counter, and then it was
with SO CHASTITY and haggard face
that Mrs. Ryan, the shopkeeper, whose
heart was clean and sweet under her
dirty wooden sacque, offered all sorts
of womaniy help to the lone creature.
Heath refused it surlily, and crept back
to his den, as he thought, to die. Some
low, intermittent fever had Slapped all
the strength out of him. But not the
obstinacy. He kept his secret, would
not summon a physician. In the long,
feverish nights he had called for Winny
and Joe; the long starved heart woke
to torture him. But in the morning his
purpose remained firm.
There was but one treasure in life
wealth. If that was lost-what did death
matter?
Yet, during the ensuing summer, he
made but few efforts in his old search;
used to sit for hours in the sun. half
asleep-an old, broken man, in truth.
1t was by accident. at last, that sue
cess came to him. He was cropping one
day in the cellar for coal when he dis
lodged loose stone, and a blast of
cold, damp air met him. % removing
part of the wall, narrow oricked pas
sage was revealed running underground.
But Heath was only able to penetrate
few feet. There the roof of the tunnel
had fallen in, and he was met by solid
mass of rock and earth hardened for
half century. His strength being
gone, it was the work of months to re-
move this mass and the others which
met him in his progress. It was late in
the fall before he forced way through
the last obstacle, and saw the tunnel
open clear before him. 1t ran to so
great distance under the woods that
he fancied ii must have had formerly
some outer opening and served as
secret passage.
1t was cool, bright morning when,
armed with a pickax and bundle of
short candles for his lantern, he entered
the tunnel to end his search. The low
roof, dripping with moisture, would not
permit him to stand upright. He crept
on into the long black vault, half bent,
peering from side to side, the mellow |
CLEAN of his lantern finging fantastic
shadows; but nothing met his eyes ex-
cept the green patches of mold that |
furred the walls and the black, fitting
shapes like gigantic bats that moved
before him.
His breath failed him as he moved. |
Surely, his hand was upon the treasure