Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-09-08

fastenings, leaving great holes In the
walls; the stairs writhed and fell apart
the beams slid from their supports and
crashed TO the earth In debris OF wrecked
wood, glass, bricks and plaster.
SIN less than moment, It seems 10
me, the beautiful villa of an hour ago
was reduced to a heap Of dust and
broken rubbish. All this happened in
less time than it takes to tell it, but a
still more terrible scene remained to be
enacted, for all of q sudden, with re-
port like musketry, the earth cracked
open and the ruins were swallowed up
In its depths.
"At the same instant there was scream
behind me in Nina's voice. turned, but
alas only in time to see the earth open
again where she lay and engulf my be-
loved as the ruins had been.
God have mercy upon usp cried,
and sought on hands and knees to fight
nv way towards the erevicc that l be-
lieved had swallowed her, but now on
every side great rents were coming and
going, nearer and nearer each time to
where crouched, reckless and paralyzed
with despair, and then, before l had time
TO realize the horror of it, and with only
q momentary vision of dense blackness
before my eyes. too was engulfed in
the earthw
NJ. lie Qnai paused to wipe his damp
brow, beaded with sweat at the mere
recollection of that hideous moment.
Monsieur" resumed he, presently,
when he had somewhat conquered his
emotion, ''if ever you have dreamed that
you were buried alive, then you have
had foretaste of the feeling with which
once recovered consciousness. No hell
could have been blacker than the place
where, on rcgaining my senses, / found
myself, prone on my back. No crack or
Granny permitted entrance to a single
ray of Gods blessed light, and to know
| the full torture of eternal darkness you
have only once to experience it. The
deadly silence, too, of the place was aw-
full, my breathing sounded to me like
the Kissing of furnace. could plain
ly see my heart beat, and even, it seemed
to me, the blood surge through my veins.
''When tried ID move, sharp pains
shot through my whole body, but soon
found, to my Joy, that was only bruised
and no bones broken. God knows why
was not killed, for the floor of my
prison was of solid rock.
"How far had fallen? With an eff
fort, dragged myself to my feet, and
taking trinket hung to my watch-chain,
| hurled it with all my strength up into
the darkness. 1t struck, but not before
its force was nearly spent. The last hope
left me. was buried alive in pit-a
pit moro than hundred feet deepl
''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 despair.
CATER while, an eternity in length,
I determined to explore the extent of the
cavern into which fate had plunged me
and which was destined to be my grave.
Perhaps, too, 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 nv heated fancy and sensitive ears,
sounded like the wheeling of a subter.
ranean bellows. l cautiously moved for.
ward and found the ground seemed tC
slope towards the point whence the noise
came.
"Walking on slowly, with outstretched
hand, cropping, you may say, it was not
very long before struck against wall
of rock. Retracing my way, came
against another, equally solid.
81 am swallowed in cleftp thought
I, shudderingly, high, narrow, burrow.
81 ling deeper and deeper with with every
inch and leading-God knows where =
to the bowels of the earth, perhapsp
Crushed by this discovery. for awhile
I was powerless to advance step, but
then, as / had nothing to Lose, 1 deter
mined to make an effort to press on an6
leave no stone unturned that might SCI
me at liberty. Creeping little by little
down the stony gorge, was at last Close
to the point whence those painting puff:
came. NV heart beat like a hammer.
:" 1T is precipice, l thought, 'anc
the wheeling sound the wind in it
depths. Better be killed outright thar
die slow death of starvationp
"And put out my foot expecting t
encounter only space. Instead | stumbled
over something soft and fell forward
Blindly l felt about me and my hanC
touched something warm "A human
} face
II felt again, running my hand alonl
the body as the blind explore, and mad
out dress! Like fash it dawned upcl
me. Nina, Ninar / cried aloud, m
voice rolling and reverberating like thu
voice Of thousand.
''She was not dead, either, for it wa
the sound of her breathing that l haC
taken for wind in the subterraneal
depths or the smothered rushing OF
volcanic stream. caught her hands
! I chafed them in mine-but it is useless
monsieur, to go over again those drag
cling moments of agony when worke'
over the half-dead body of my love, o
those moments of mingled Joy and tor
ture when her returning consciousness
had to struggle with the fearful reality.
az told her as we'll as / could wher
we were and how we had come there
To her piteous pleas for comfort coul'
!, only respond with a sorrowful silence o
:, an equally piteous entreaty to her to b
4 hopeful.
q cat that moment, sir-how strangel
4 does the aspect Of things change as th
wheel of life goes I've would both OF
have given ten years of our lives to hav
e escaped from our living tomb. Now
: at least, would not have escaped tha
experience. / should then never hav
= known those bitter-sweet hours whe
! INV love and /, buried together and wit
4 death staring us in the face, were draw
n together bv the strongest tie humanit
u knows-the bond of common adversit,
"When at last, on my persuasion
: Ny;oo souoht m move ahe fell back heir