The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-03

known as Round Stone Knobs. A couple
OF days ago DR.. J. j. Kite, prominent
Young dentist, went with dog and gun into
| that locality to shoot quail, and for time
he had excellent sport. About noon, how
| ever, thunderstorm came up and he
entered deep. rocky gorge with the hope
of finding shelter from the menacing ele-
| ments Seeing an aperture in the cliff on
his left he entered it, and was surprised to
find himself In a large winding gallery with
steep and craggy walls on either side and
with roof that rapidly assembled to con-
siderable height About twenty-five feet
from the entrance was an object which ar
rested his attention. 1t was a gigantic
bowlder, oblong in shape and weighing
hundreds of tons, lying in an oblique po-
sition on a high jutting ledge, with its
huge crest upreared awfully into gap in
the cavern's roof.
1t looked as though slight shock or the
touch of meddlesome hand might displacs
it and cause it to come crashing down. In
deed it was one of those frightful death
traps of nature, grim and sinister, some
times found in subterranean passages or
upon jagged precipices.
Dr. Kite is of an adventurous disposition;
small repute. The novelty and excitement
felt in penetrating the unexplored, so
fascinating to daring spirits, allured and
emboldened him. Believing that he should
make some interesting discoveries he adj
vanced resolutely into the cavern. AS he
did so his faithful dog suddenly curled its
tail between it's legs and made a speedy
exit. At the same time the doctor saw two
fiery eyes glaring from a dark corner.
ATTACKED BIZ BATS.
Hastily raising his gun, ne took deliber-
ate aim and let go both barrels simulta-
neously. He never knew what the animal
was or what had become of it, for the in
fernal din that beloved and I-bellowed
through the cavern was followed by an aw-
full crash, suffocating columns of dust and
dense darkness. and hewas thrown violent
ly forward and almost buried beneath
masses of falling sand.
He scrambled to his feet again, bleeding
and gasping for breath. Terror struck and
appalled,, he realized that the huge bowlder
above had been precipitated into the pas
sage, completely blocking the corridor and
shutting him, like the doors of ponderous
tomb, forever from the light. He saw no
way of escape. A Plutonian darkness en-
veloped him. Moreover, a vast tribe Of
bats, disturbed by the defamation of his
gun and the shifting sound, began to
swarm along the passage, numbers of them
alighting on his person. They were of re-
markable size and ferceness and seemed
disposed to attack him. So vicious did
they become that he was forced to fight
them off by swift movements of his hands
They swept forward in enormous focks,
as if to escape, and that quarter OF the cav
ern was quickly alive with them.
Stunned and only partly aroused from
their stupor, thousands precipitated them
selves against the jutting rocks and fell
upon the floor dead or Tapping awkwardly
about in their wounded agony. They
swarned on the doctors back and neck
like huge bees. They dashed against his
face and chung to his clothes, his hair and
his beard, and their whirling wings. bel
lowslike, whiYled the dry dust of centuries
about in clouds, grievously irritating the
hunters already exhausted lungs.
SET FIRE TO HIS COAT.
Threatened with suffocation, he increased
the activity of his movements. He struck
savagely and hurled hundreds of the
squeaking harpies upon the earth and
trampled them under his feet. The cav
ern's rocky bottom became so slippery
with the blood and scattered entrails of
mangled bats that he could scarcely keep
his footing That he should preserve his
equanimity under such torture Is wonder
full, but that he did is manifest from what
now TRANSFERRED
Shaking off his fierce tormentors for q
moment he pulled off his coat and pouring
h. 81
bottle which he carried in his hip pocket,
he ignited it with match, and as it blazed
up he began to whirl it, circle of kissing
flame and pungent smoke, about his head.
The effect was magical. The bats, unable
to bear the light and the fumes, spread
their wings and began a precipitate flight
to other parts of the cave.
Surrounded by panic stricken birds, even
under the spectral light of the torch, Kite
presented the appearance of something in
human. ghoulish, demoniacaL Issuing
from the pockets of his burning coat could
be heard the sound of bursting shells,
which mingled strangely with his unearth-
ly cries. Yelling and rushing from side TO
side of the cavern, his hair tumbled over
his forehead in tangled masses and his face
distorted with fury and despair, he whisked
the fiery brand about, soaring, scorching
and burning many alive, until the vast
army of horrid creatures had been driven
back into further recesses of the under
ground chamber.
HARD WORK FOR LIBERTY.
Nearly exhausted, his clothes and body
wet with sweat and blood, he began to con-
slider the possibility Of escape from his
prison house. If any avenue of escape
over the stupendous bowlder still existed,
which was uncertain, it would have been
madness TO attempt TO scale it in the deep,
reigning darkness. He therefore aban-
doned hopeless idea, and sought TO find
some vulnerable point at the side OF the
seemingly impossible stone barrier.
By the light of a sickly blaze which
PLAYED over the smoking remnant of his
still burning vestment, he picked up his
gun and thrust the barrels into the crum-
bling earth and stone at one side of the
huge rock. The mass yielded by piece
meal to his exertions, and with the energy
of man entornbed alive and desperate for
liberty, he worked heruicslly, digging up
the earth and prying away great frag-
ments of rocks.
Hope never forsook him, and after seven
hours Of incessant labor, during which the
work of Titan was performed, be sue
ceeded in making an opening large enough
for his BODY. and through this hole be
squeezed himself In his bleeding and
blistered hands be held the twisted and
battered remains of gun, and just as the
cold but friendly moon arose behind the
tall pines on the opposite cliff he passed
out. pale, hacya-d and grimy, into the
rhiIiv rir,ht -Cnr Cincinnati Commercial