Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-06

| that night, and the publicans did roar
ing trade. l nominated the men who
were to proceed with me in the morning
to the Devils Parlor" and ordered
them to be in readiness an hour before
dawn and strictly commanded them to
tell no one.
| did not go to bed at all that night,
though l may have dozed little by the
Office fire. At 1 woke up the boys. At
my party, and none but my party, be-
ing assembled, we started, we'll provid-
ed with strong ropes, candles, torches,
paraffin stepped turnes, lucifer matches,
etc. l had with me, too, a flask of
brandy and sandwiches. l did not know
in what exhausted condition l might
find the lost. They said indeed we are
we'll, but nevertheless One of the
men in my party had formerly accom-
panied Edward Freeman when he made
that abortive descent and had found
nothing but Charley's loaves. 1t was
quite plain now that from the entrance
there were two ways leading down
one blind alley ending in the small
chamber, the other conducting into
some great subterranean cavern to
here on the hillside, the othel the
square opening in the sea clift-viz,
the hole out of which Crohoor- beg's i'm
aginary piast had projected itself in
that very remarkable and terrible man
ner when he devoured the Lau-beg
men. Arrived at the spot. we finished
our preparations and waited for the
light, for it was still dark. 1t was not
raining, but the weather was wild, and
strong gale blew from the west. l had
the man who had been with Edward
Freeman show me the place where he
had made the descent. Avoiding this,
put my foot in the stirrup and babe
them lower away. | had round my neck
fastened by strap bag containing
half a dozen of Joseph's peculiar
torches, and in my hands, which clasped
both it and the rope, a skewer to serve
as handle for those torches. For a
short time 1 had to keep myself away
from the rock with my second foot,
that which was not in the stirrup. Pres
emily felt myself swinging in midair
in black darkness and certainly in some
vast hollow. In few minutes more
would be clasping the hands of the poor
lost lads. Then l shouted. Vast hollow
echoes and reverberations travelling
through what seemed interminable
spaces and endless galleries responded
to my shout-echoes and rever alterations
and nothing else. That surprised me
but did not much surprise me. The
cavern was plainly enormous, and there
were PARKWAY winding corridors into
which my voice might not travel. More
over, the boys might be and probably
were asleep. I'VE will soon find them
and wake them up, said. l continued
at intervals to shout, Jack" "Ned!"
and as loudly as l could roar. Still
there came no response but the huge
echoes which now sounded in my ears
like the laughter and mockery of sub
terranean giants. Whether | was de-
scending or not l could not tell. Above
Inc it was as dark as below, and of
course | had long since ceased to hear
the voices of those at the caves mouth
and the running Of the rope over the
block of timber which my miner had
laid on the edge of the precipice. No
doubt l was descending, but for all l
could feel and perceive might be fixed
and stationary in the darkness or even
descending. The minutes now began to
seem like hours. Would l ever reach
the bottom of this awful abyss. and to
think that those pleasant young friends
of mine, SO gay, bright and good ma
tured, so full of life. vigor and activity,
should be immured here, one of them
for many months. Again and again l
shouted, Jack "Ned!' "Ned!
Jack" Are you there?" 'Halloa!'
"Halloa!" and still no sound reached
my ears but knocking laughter and su-
pernatural echoes which seemed to grow
greater as l descended and rolled like
thunder round the cavern.
At last 1 heard a sharp click I'M
der my feet and experienced soft
shock was on the bottom. The click
was the noise of my iron stirrup strik-
ing on a rock or stone. Still keeping my
foot in the Stirrup, 1 threw off my bag
of turnes, opened it. stuck one on the
point of my skewer struck match and
ignited the torch 1t sent out good
blaze. but revealed where l stood moth
ing but great powders ano on one side
the walls of the cavern rising sheer and
black. l gave the preconcerted signal.
two strong jerks at the rope, which was
at once drawn up. The rope and stir
rup looked very curious dangling there
above my head as they disappeared into
the thick and black darkness. I contin-
ued to shout at intervals, but eventual
ly des;sted until the coming of my as
sistants Either the Freemans were
sound asleep or were in some far gal
lery of the cavern beyond the reach of
my voice, or they We're now-terrible
ght!-beyond the reach of human
help, and we were too late, perhaps only
a few hours too late.
The next to descend was my head
constable; then in succession the two
boys, Harry and Joseph, then my or
derby and last subconstable named
Mulvaney These and no more l had
permitted to descend. I had the order
ly remain with the rope and keep his
torch burning there. All together now
we raised our voices and shouted as
loud as we could bawl and did so again
and again. Save the echoes, now grown
more vast and appalling, there was no
response. 1 was becoming more and
more alarmed. If the boys were alive,
they must have heard that shout. The
part of the cavern in which we found
ourselves seemed to be long and not
very wide gallery. We explored this
to the end, and as we had plenty of
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