San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-02-11
BATTLING WITH BATS
FIERCE STRUGGLE IN A CAVE ALONG
RocKcASTLE RIVER.

Subterranean Exploration-How q MAI
Drove Away n Horde OF Hungry YAM
pire shaped Creatures.
Near Rockcastle river is a famous group
of wild, rocky, pine covered hills, locally
known as Round Stone Knobs. A couple
of DAYS ago DR.. j. j. Kite, q prominent
Young dentist. went with dog and gun into
that locality to shoot quail, and for a time
be had excellent sport. About noon, how
ever, a thunderstorm came up n he
entered a 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 a roof that rapidly assembled to a con-
siderable height. About twenty-five feet
from the entrance was an object which ar
rested his attention. e 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 a gap in
the cavern's root.
1t looked as though a slight shock or the
touch of a meddlesome hand might displace
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.
DIR. Kite is Of an adventurous disposition:
also he is a naturalist and geologist Of no
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 glazing from a dark corner.
ATTACKED BY BATS.
Hastily raising his gun, he 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 rebellowed
through the cavern was followed by an aw-
full crash, suffocating columns of dust and
dense darkness, and he was 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 a ponderous
tomb, forever from the light. He saw no
way of escape. A Plutonian darkness en-
veloped him. Moreover, Il 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 f%ierceness 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 iocks,
Is 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
swarmed 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, whirled the dry dust of c~entu;.ea
about in clouds, ~grievously irritating tie
hunters already exhausted lungs.
SET FIRR TO HIS COAT.
Threatened with suffocation, he increase
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 transpired.
Shaking off his fierce tormentors for u
moment he pulled off his coat and pouring
over it the combustible contents of q whisky
bottle which he carried in his hip pocket,
he ignited it with a match, and as it blazed
up he began to whirl it, a circle of hissina
1ame 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
Surrounded by panic stricken birds, ever
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 t,
side of the cavern, his hair tumbled ovel
his forehead in tangled masses and his fac,
distorted with fury and despair, he whiskeJ
the fiery brand about, soaring, scorchins
and burning many alive, until the vas
army of horrid creatures had been driver
back into further recesses of the under
ground chamber.
HARD woRk FOR IBRRTY
Nearly exhausted, his clothes and bod,
wet with sweat and blood, he began to cor
slider the possibility of escape from hi
prison house. II q avenue Of escap