The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-01-19

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"we shall make land good hour ere
undown," said the captain to his chief of
flcsr, giving me the first authentic informa-
tion OF tho day.
BY this time my faculty Of curiosity had
lost It's edge but at the mention Of land
sat up to keep a lookout, and in less than
an hour we sighted the shore. It's general
character resembled that of the part we
had left earlier In the day, though soon
saw we were not returning to the death
scene of the luckless Bird Of Paradise. In
stead Of a shallow beach the water ran close
to high rocks, penetrated by rugged gorges.
into which the sea flowed. No port, town
or human habitation was to be seen. But
that, all things considered, was not surpris-
ing g.. .,o. into . i, .r,o. on.,,,,, ,,,,,.. ., .
darkening brows Of lofty cliffs, and imme.
diately the sails fell together with flap.
Almost before they ceased fiuttering they
were In and furled. Then a boat was low.
cred, half dozen steel sinewed men got
into 1t and rowed, pulling the ship by q
cable. Light and Of small draft, she fol-
lowed easily, and In half an hour or SO, aft
err manifold windings, we came to a rude
jetty hewn, as 1t appeared, out of the solid
rock. Here we disembarked, the vessel be.
ing made fast to rough stone pillar.
As we leaped from the bulwarks to the
lodges of rock that formed the pier my
heart beat quickly with conjecture and ap-
prehension, for it was plain that a crisis
was ut hand. To guess what it might be
was enough to make the stoutest tremble.
The black precipices, the yawning caverns
and hoatse roar Of warning waters were of
evil suggestion, but of far darker import
than any menace or ugliness of nature were
the lowering faces Of my companions.
These men had shown during the day by
hundred expressive tokens that they resent
ed my presence among them, and now fan
cied caught them casting sidelong looks
at one another, then at their weapons, then
atme, as II settling by such glances Of in.
telligence the manner Of getting rid of me-
With quaking limbs and the worst fore.
bodings fell into line at the bidding of the
captain, and we struck, single file, into
a craggy path, at its best no broader than q
sheep run in the highlands and in places SO
narrow as scarcely to afford foothold for a
weasel. Looking upward from the bottom
one could not imagine how it scaled the
darkening precipices that frowned upon us
in vast swellings and outings with the saw
age, solitary pride of the inaccessible. Ii the
ascent did not prove utterly impossible, It
was because every man of us had the feet
of goat and the sinews and agility Of a
monkey.
Our ribbon of a path wound in crazy coil
ings and twlstings, now rising vertically in
steps higher than our heads, now dropping
treacherously at critical point, ceasing
suddenly and again appearing beyond some
perilous projection that a chamois would
hardly have attempted to pass. Often we
had to go ON our hands and knees, scraping
with toes and olutching with finger nails
as we crawled over some slippery mass,
like ants on the polished knob of glacier,
or scrambled up Jagged rock, the point Of
which cut and rent like sharpened fiints, or
slid down, face inward, twice our own
length to q scarcely perceptible crevice.
forming fresh starting point -f
was hunter and knew what il was to
tread dizzy ways / had followed the fox
to his lair when the hounds had turned
tail and robbed the eagles eyrie when the
hardest of my companions stood holding
his breath In awe. But the self possession
and free spirit of audacity which prompted
to such hazards and gave them relish were
utterly gone. 10 speak the truth sbiv-
cred like one suddenly taken with an ague.
1t was not the terror Of the place alone
that appalled, me. To go leaping and
scrambling on a hair line along the brink of
| tumbling, Kissing gulf that sent the
| spumes of its wrath high up In clouds, with
no outlook or hope of escape, was indeed
disconcerting enough, yet scarcely of itself
sufficient to take the heart ont Of born
mountaineer. The tremors and shakiugs,
the alternate spasms of heat and cold, were
| duel trust it is not cowardly to confess
| it--not to the threatenings of cliff and
| ehasm, but to the hostile weapons that
| cleaned in front and rear and might at
anv r,nonnant ba dpad in INV l,lood
How easy it would be to prod me there
and send me toppling mortally wounded
into the abyss. to be ground as between
millstones at the bottoml A sudden stab
in the back, push, glddy, headlong fall,
and the deed would be done, and no word
Of it need ever get to the outside world.
| More than once, as my mind dwelt on this
clung to the rocks shuddering like child
in mortal fright. The grewsomeness of the
situation was enhanced, too, by the eerie
shadow of light. Here and there buttress
and jutting promorAry flushed into rose
and shone in gold and amethyst, but these
points of radiance only gave a hideous
emphasis to the prevailing gloom of the
gorge. They were like the ghastly mock
cries Of world | had once known, but
was never to know again.
am no judge of how long or how far
we had struggled when upon turning a
sharp angle we came upon an open space, or
circular ledge of the dimensions of a small
room. Here we stopped, our sides heaving
like the flanks of a spent hound. and the
best of us glad to breathe himself
Whether by accident or the unsuspected
design of those about me, stood on the
outer rim, the very edge of the wall that
fell 80 fathoms sheer, the surging, unsound-
ed depths beneath. Under that unaccount-
able species Of fascination which lures
man to gaze on the horrible and awful,
bent forward and looked into the black pit
at my feet With a swimming head drew
back to feel myself seized roughly from
behind. An icy sensation thrilled through
me, ! gave a great gasp, and my knees
knocked violently together The fearful
moment had been anticipating had come.
They bandaged my eyes and bound my
hands to my sides, and thus made helpless.
left me standing. | shut my lips tight and
my eyes also, although they were covered,
and awaited the fatal thrust and giddy
whirl into space Not word was spoken.
Iheard the rustic of garments and tho rat
tie of arms, and away below the sallen.
mufiled voice OF the sea, but other sound
there was none The ill boding silence was
more terrifying than the menacing tongues
of hundred enemies. 1t was the very ex-
tremity Of torture to have my captors make
their arrangements for disposing of me
with such stealthy secrecy.
In the crowdlng fears and agitations the
idea flashed upon me that they meant not
only to slay but to torture me- / thought
of all had read about living men being
fayed and cut into bits by sayages, and my
flesh crept and shrank as II at the touch OF
the knife. 1t was only by keeping teeth
and linz rlinphpI that II tnupunad ~. hnIl