Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-07

OH. let L went W tLS 6AlIGILt 1IjLlI VI
the daylight without finding such, and
afterward penetrating the sheer dark
ness CROPPED about in all directions with
out success. Everywhere | scrambled
only over large powders. Still cropping
forward in the darkness. urged now by
the fury of despair, found myself sud
denly cut off altogether from even a
view of the window. l had gone round
some angle of rock and was immersed
In dense darkness. l gave myself up
for lost. and having searched around IN
vain without perceiylng anywhere ray
! of light sat down umd-well, not to be
too proud. wept long and bitterly. Then.
PRAYING fervCntIy and thinking with
such feelings rs may he imagined of the
opening line of that little familiar col
lect, Tighten our darkness, we beseech
thee, o Lord" which had SO often re-
peated with little or no thought of its
meaning and which was now naturally
brought to my remembrance, | search
ed again for the light clalnbering reck-
lessly over the powders, and at length to
my extreme joy perceived faint ray
of light. Moving toward it, l suddenly
caught sight of Curry S Window, and
| however | might have been inclined to
curse that sinister aperture now SIM
cerely blessed it and the level rays
| which shot through it into the inner
| gloom. thought of Milton s line, Hail,
holy light, offspring of heavens first
| born" | may mention here that | was
very fond of poetry and had stored away
great deal of it in my memory, so that
l could repeat vast number of the Eng
lish lyrics and even long passages from
| SpenSer, Shakespeare and Milton. This
intellectual provision or accomplish
ment, or whatever it may be called,
| proved great blessing to me in my mis-
cradle Imprisonment and was probably
the means, under God, of preserving my
reason. With the rediscovery of heav-
ems blessed light, hope revived. hope
and also hunger. Now for the first time
l thought of food, for though nigh fam
ished had not been quite conscious of
it hitherto, owing to the feverish excite
ment into which had been thrown. l
had with me half slice of bread, which,
knowing that | would not b. home TIL
late. / had thrust into one of my pOck-
cts before leaving the house. AS to wa
ter ! was safe. Searching round the
walls of my prison the previous night, l
found the rock upon the right side slip
perry from wetneSS, and at one point felt
water running against my fingers. Also
in the interior somewhere l heard,
though far away, the splash of descend
ing water. l ate my bread, and going
to the spot where l had felt moving
water on the previous night made a cup
hand md tho inSi q
edge of it against the rock, and doing
this again and again, got a good drink
of very pure spring water.
l now resolved to search the cave
more carefully than | had done before
for pebbles such as | could remove.
and to be particularly cautious about
losing sight of the window. | searched
around now for hours, but in vain.
Hardly stone of the kind could l dis
cover. l returned to my bed of seaweed
and lay down to rest. | was now pain
fully conscious OF growing weakness.
My excitement was wearing away and
the lack of food beginning to tell. 1t
was now about midday. From time to
time l shouted as loudly as | could, but
only heard for response the knocking
voice. Knowing that boats were not
likely to he passing in the middle of the
day, determined to husband my ener-
gies in this direction until the evening.
1t was now certain that could not climb
out of my prison or within the limits
and vicinity of the light procure sea-
weed or stones in sufficient quantity to
make for myself scaling ladder My
last hope lay in my rod and line.
piled up all the seaweed procurable,
took off my clothes and laid them on
the top of the heap and thrusting up
ward the butt end of the rod endeavOred
by means of the crook supplied by the
reel to secure a purchase upon the sill
of the window and so drag myself up
out of this pit. If the rod and reel had
only been strong enough, | might have
succeeded. l was conscious that it was
a forlorn hope. but nevertheless made
the attempt. | did succeed in getting a
grip somewhere at the sill with the reel,
but as soon us l began to climb the top
joint of the rod gave way. l tumbled
down, rolled from the seaweed heap on
the powders and was much bruised
and shaken by the fall. With the por-
ton of the rod which remained in my
hands l succeeded in dlsengaging the
rest, which fell back into the cave.
next unrolled the line. doubled it. dou-
bled it again and made a pretty strong
rope, which | fastened to the thicker
part of the rod and renewed my attempt,
this time t1inging up the rod and let
ting it slide back from the sill. hoping
that the reel, which was a large one,
might catch. The rod and twisted line
were indeed strong enough to bear my
weight, but had great difficulty on this
occasion in securing a purchase with
the reel, and when l did the moment
my weight, which was considerable,
fell upon the reel the shank went with
loud snap. Again fell, and the reel
tumbling after me rang ON the bowl
ders. All was in vain. had now tried
every imaginable method of escape, and
they had all failed. Evening was at
hand and the cave nearly blackened at
the entrance, and had grown horribly
hungry. had, however, plenty of pure
water, and that was some comfort. Be
sides some cut tobacco in my pouch, l
had also a very large roll of what we
used to call Limerick twist in my
fishing bag. had bought it at buck
ster's on my way to the Dhu-Corrig.
not tor myself, but as supply for the
men who from time to time might be
of service to me. 1t was the only form
of reward that they would accept, ours
being primitive and unsophisticated
neighborhood. had heard of some sort
of comfort which was derived from the
chewing of tobacco. l cut off bit of
the twist, and after chewing it felt my
hunger abated, but also a disagreeable
sense of vertigo, accompanied with nau-
sea. Nevertheless these sensations were
a relief from the horrible feeling of ut