The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-01-04

mere robbers-they were traitors and
plotters against the state.
In spite of himself, the boy gave a
slight start, and the movement dis
lodged a small piece of stone, which fell
rafting to the ground.
clark what was that2" cried one of
the conspirators; "methought some
thing stirred in yon corner. Can any
one have overheard up"
elf any one has," cried a second
man, fercely, ''it is death to us or to
himl Let me deal with himl"
He sprang forward with unified
sword, and in a moment poor Kispar
would have been discovered aud cut to
pieces, had not a huge bat, scared by
the movement, gone tapping aud
s%creeching across the cave into the
deeper shadows.
The plotters laughed hoarsely at this
absurd issue of their alarm, and sa,is-
fed that this bat had been the cause of
the sound that had startled them,
troubled themselves no more about the
matter, and went on with their talk,
while our hero, with death staring him
in the face, listened attentively to
evevy word they said.
Aud in truth what he heard was well
worthy of attention; for in a few mo.
ments he had learned that these viii
lains were plotting to betray the town
of Lucerne TO the Austrian emperor
Qrom whose oppression it hid but
recently freed it-elD, and to restore
the tyrannical mobiles whom the stout
hearted Swiss peasants han lately
driven out. An Austrian army vas al
ready on its way to surprise the town,
the gates of which were to be opened
TO it by the traitors; aud in order to eff
f~ectually cripple any attempt at resist
ance on the part of the citlzens, all the
leading men among them were tc be
murdered by the plotters that very
night
AT this last disclosure, the most ter
rible of all, poor Kaspar's feverish
anxiety beclme almost unbearable. He
held in his hands the secret that would
save the whole town from destruction,
and yet he had no chance of using it;
and the plot was to be carried out that
same night! What if these ruff ms
were to send off some of their number
to begin the work of murder at once,
while the rest remained to complete
their arrangements, and thus kept him
imprisoned in his hiding-place!
The thought was mAudening; and
the brave boy, driven to distraction by
the idea of sitting idle while his coun.
trymen were being cut off by treason
made up his mind that the only thing
Tor him to do was to burst in amid the
murderous gang, dash the lantern from
the hand of the man who held ii, anC
then try to break through them in thC
darkness, and gain the mouth of the
cave.
1t was o wild and perilous scheme
and had little or no chance of success
but so de- perate had our hero becom,
at the immineuce of the danger men
acing his friends and the whole town
that he was just about to maNJ the at
tempt, when, to his indescribable re
lief, this council of darkness shovel
signs of breaking up. The man wit
the lantern (who seemed to be tn,
leader of the gan,) held up his light
and moved slowly back along tn
gloomy passage, followed by his con
rades.
Then Kssper, taking a bold resolu
ton, mingled unperceived with the as
sassins in the darkness, and reache'
the mouth of the cave without bein
detected. AS he issued from it his ey
caught a light in an adjoining building
where the heads of the various g tradin
guilds of the town were wont to 81
up rather late over their supper; an
thither he FASTENED with all possibl
speed.
His tale was soon told, and readil
believed. An hour later all the ploI
tiers were prisoners, and the town wa
saved. The Austrian invaders, fine
ing their plot bafled, made a hasty an
disorderly retreat; and the memory {
the bold boy whose courage and coo
ness saved Lucerne is held in hone
there to this day-David Ker, IN Hal
per'S Young People.