Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-12-21

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one. 1t was imbedded in the door, which
was solid and strong, and all my hammer
ings on the lock, the door and the jamb of
the door were alike unavailing. l then
tried the other, with the like unsuccess
now felt that was prisoner indeed,
and as leaned against the wall wiped
the perspiration from my brow. l per-
ceived with added horror that the day
light was beginning to decrease. What
shall dor" asked myself, trying to be
calm. Then 1 recollected the suspicious
look of the man l met at the door, and of
whom l asked my way.
Gould he" thought l, "have sent me
here on purposeH Did he believe me to be
a spy and has he taken his revenge on me
| by directing me into this trapY' In the
heated state of my mind verify believed
he had, and my blood boiled with indig-
nation at the trick.
But Indignation would not help me out
of the difficulty, and so l went to work
again, first knocking, then shouting at
the top of my voice, then belaboring the
lock again with the brick, but all in vain.
There l was, as tightly screwed up as
though l had been prisoner of the in
QUESTION, and with the additional horror
that there was an open window tempting
me to escape, enticing me to make an eff
fort for freedom, and yet with death surely
staring me in the face should / make the
attempt.
Again and again approached the win
dow, calculated the depth of the descent
to the bottom of the hole, examining ev-
cry circumstance connected with it, and as
often came to the conclusion that escape
was impossible that way. For a time 1
thought l might have done the trick by a
jump to the roof of IA building right Oppo-
site the window and trlle lower than it,
The distance from the sill of the window
to the roof was perhaps five feet, or maybe
little mOre-no great jump-but then
the roof was sloping, the red tiles were
broken and seemed loose, and the zin1
gutter so insecure that it appeared as
though the slightest touch would bring it
down. l imagined myself jumping across,
alighting on the shelving roof, finding no
secure footing, sliding down to the gut
ter and then, as it gave way beneath the
pressure, falling downtown into the
hole beneath. No; l could not have done
that, even if there had been no difficulty
as to making tho spring from narrow
window sill backed by the window. The
thought of the risk made me shudder
But there was n fascination i'll that
tempting roof nevertheless, and if | had
not at this juncture perceived an almost
equally precarious means of possible cs
cape | think l should have advcntured the
jump at any risk.
have said that the distance from tho
window to the opposite roof was about
five feet. This, therefore, was the breadth
of what | have called the well. Its length
parallel with the window was, l should
think, nine or ten feet. At either end
there was nothing but dead wall, rising
higher than the top Of the window. Tho
bottom of the well, which l could see but
indstinctly, was uneven, there being IA
flight Of stone steps descending from IA
doorway, which occupied half the space
PerChed on the edge of these steps in the
corner-that is, the corner next my right
hand--was a large tub, one side of ii be
ing supported by a slight pile Of bricks
viii it be imagincd-SuCh was the ok.
tremity to which ! had been reduced by
my frght-that ! actually fanCied | saw "A
way of escape by means of that tubY Tn"
thought occurred to me that it was u rain
tub; that it was probably well filed with
water; that if l could drop into it
should he all right, etc. 1t was the notion
of mailman, hut ! actually entertained
it. The only difficulty, as l thought, was
the fact that the tub was not directly ur
der the window, but on one side of it.
This circumstance and the effort to find
out n way Of getting Immediately over the
tub, so that ! might drop perpendicularly
-. -. 4
better means Of escape, for looking into
the corner next the window on my right
perceived spout there, and by leaning as
far out of tie window as possible | could
just reach it, My first thought was to get
hold of that and then drop, but this soon
gave place to the idea that might descend
by it.
tried the spout as well MS I could and
found it rather shaky.
Above it had actually parted from one
of the nails that shOuld have held ii, and
portion of it seemed ready to fall, but
below, although the nails were rusty, they
appeared still to hold.
The more l regarded tho spout the more
I was fascinated by it until at length !
found myself grasp,ng it with both my
hands, and partly slipping along, partly
going hand over hand, slowly descending
it. The position was really too perilOus
for me to grasp all the terrible peril of it,
Every movement ! made shook the frail
support. The nails seemed ready to come
from the walls, and one actually did give
way and fall out. l thought then all was
over with me- dared not move another
inch. Then it occurred to me that now
was the time for me to drop into the tub.
l looked down cautiously to make sure
that l should fall all right, when. to my
horror, l saw that the tub was decayed
and shattered thing without bottom;
that it was so frailly supported by bricks
and pieces of wood that the slightest touch
would overset it,, and that, in short, it was
a positive additional danger rather than u
help. l felt now that if l fell upon it
should undoubtedly break my back.
Such was the horror of my situation
now that felt the only thing for me to
do was to try to swarm back again to the
window of my prison. One effort, how
ever, made in that direction showed me
that the attempt was impossible. The
part of the spout which the nail had left
gave way in my hands and all but fell
Under the circumstances l perceived
that there was nothing for it but to go on,
kick the cask away when got near enough
to do so and take my chances of a final
drop, so descended inch by inch, foot by
foot, tearing my hands every minute in