Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-11-23

we place where, on regalning my senses,
round myself, prone on my back. 40
crack or Granny permitted entrance TO
single ray OF G IDS blessed light, AMI
TO know the full torture OF eternal
DARKNESS you have only once to exparI-
ence 1t. The deadly silence, too, of the
place was awful; my breathing sounded
TO me like the kissing of furnace. l
could plainly see my heart beat, and
even, 1t seemed to M, the blood surge
through my veins.'
when l tried to mo7e, sharp pains
shot through my whole body, but |
soon found, to my joy, that l was only
oruise and no boues broken. God
knows why | was not killed, for the
floor OF my p lson was of solid rock.
''How lar hal | fallen? With an ef-
fort, dragged mys III to my feet, and
taking trinket hung to my watch
cham, | hurled it with all my strength
up into tue darkness. 1t struck, but
not before its fo.cs was nearly spent.
The last hope left me was buried
alive In pit a pit more than a hun
dred feet deep
Overcome by the anguish of my
thoughts and the oppression of the
pitchy darkness. | sank again to the
ground and gave myself up to utter
de pair.
after a while, an eternity in length
l determined to explore the extent of
tie cavern INTO which fate had plunged
me and which was destined to be my
grave. Perhaps, too, a sound that for
little while past had been gradually
becoming audible to me had something
to do with rousing me to action.
This noise came from distance, and
TO my heated fancy and sensitive ears,
sounded like the wheeling of subter-
ranen bellows. l cautiously moved
forward and found the ground seemed
10 slope towards the point whence the
noise came.
"Walking on slowly, with out
stretched hand, groping, you may say,
1t was not very long before l struck
against wall of rock. Re racing my
way, l came against another, equally
solid.
"'I am swallowed In cleftl'
thought L, shudderingly, high, narrow,
burrowing deeper and deeper with
every inch and leading-G1d knows
wherel-to the bowels of the earth,
perhapsi'
Crushed by this discovery, for
awhile was powerless to advance
step, but then, as had nothing to lose,
L determined to make an effort to press
on and leave no stone unturned that
might set me at liberty. Creeping
little by little down the stony gorge, l
was at last close to the point whence
those panSing puffs came. My heart
beat ike hammer.
"'It is a precip'ce,' L thought, and
the wheeling sound the wind In its
depths. Better be k lied outright than
die slow death of starvationl'
''Aud put out my foot expecting to
encounter only space. Instead 1
stumbled over something soft and fell
forward. Blindly l felt alb )ut me aud
my hand touched something warm "a
human facel
81 felt again, running nv hand along
the body as the blind explore, and
made out a dres ! Like a flash it
| dswned upon me. Nina, Ninal' 1
cried aloud, my voice rolling and re-
verberating like the voice of a thou
sand.
"She was not dead, either, for it was
the sound or her breathing that | had
taken for a wind IN ths subterranean
depths or the smothere1 rushing oe
volcanic stream. L caught her hands
Il chafed them in mine-but Ii is use
less, monsieur, to 60 over again those
dragging moments OF agony when l
worked over the haIf-dead body of my
love, or those moments Of mingled Joy
and torture when her returning con-
sciousness had to struggle with the
fearful reality.
rplA Err oil I
we were and how we had come there.
To her plteous pleas for comfort could
only respond with sorrowful silence
or an eq tally piteous entreaty to her to
be hopeful.
"At that moment, sir-how strangely
does the aspect OF things change as the
wheel of Life goesl-we would both Of
US have given ten years OF our lives to
hive escaped from our living tomb.
Now L, at least, would not have es-
capped that experience. 1 should then
never have known those bitter-sweet
hours when my love and /, buried
together and with death staring US in
the face, were orawn together by the
strongest tie humanity knows-the
bonds of common adverSity.
"Whe1 at last, on my peryuasioD,
Nina sought to move, she fell back
helpless with loud cry of pain; she
had sprainet her ankle and could not
stir without agony. Nothing could be
done but to lie there where she had
fallen,
"How long we renamed thus do
net know. Hunger and thirst came in
time, two new troubles added to the
rest. Though we could not lose our
selves In sleep, still our minds were
tortured with waking dreams, horrible
to think of now. The strain, In truth,
was so hideously cruel, that Nina, at
times, grew delirioIs, tossel and
writbed regardless Of the pain she gave
herself and filed the darkness with her
beartrending cries.
"Then again peace would return and
she would cling TO my hand for human
compauionshIp simply to feel that some
one was near. AS L say, how long this
lasted, 1 do not know, but, suddenly,
after an eternal torture, a shly.r struck
brusquely through walls and floor, fol-
lowed by another and still another,
accompanied at first by faint rumble
that died away in the echoing bowels of
the earth.
.sBut soon the rumble grew to roar,
the roar to thunder. The noise was
deafening. The rocky ground heaved
like the ocean. 1t was my turn now to
lose nv reason. l knew not whas |
did. but Nina tells me that L seized
her in my arms, that in frenzy
OF despalring love 1 covered her
face, her hands with kisses, crying
aloud wildly:
IF die we must, Nina, we can at
least die togetherl You are mine,
mine forever howl Not even death
itself can part usl''
'.Proport.nately as 1 lost my senses
Nina beame calm, besought me to re-
gain my composure and pleaded with
81 III.n Iii, .nf tha naYf uarId--sn