The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-10
IN a SECRET CELL
An Imprisoned Traveller Saved by
His knowledge of TeleRraphy.
From the Detroit Free Press.

His knowledge of TeleRraphy.
From the Detroit Free Press.
When was young man. remarked
the traveller, sitting by the hotel stove
one night, Il was for about five years a
telegraph operator, and it was the max
ing of my fortune"
Nobody ever heard of a telegraph
operator getting rich,N INTERRUPTED a
young man who was getting $50 a month
as cicker at the railroad station.
indirectly they may" said the trave-
Ter though possibly not quite as did
10 go on with my story. When l was %
was sent down into Mexico with a lot of
other operators TO handle tickers for a
new line they were building there. I had
charge of a section of the line. and nv
headquarters were in a town of about
800 people, which was a sort of a station
also for big mining country in the noun
talns, and 1t was tough place, l tell
you.
i had my room at the tavern, the land
lord of which was one of the smOothest
villains you ever saw. He could speak
English quite we'll, and had the conf
dence of all the telegraph people
except myself, and somehow
! suspected him from the
very first After l had been working
ton in the shape of the abduction OF an
Englishman, who owned one of the big
geSU mines in the mountains, and he was
held for ransom. The brigands wanted
$50, OOD for him, and the authorities did
all they could to catch the band or rescue
the prisoner, but without avail. They
couldn't find hide nor hair of robber or
Englishman, but the
DEMAND FOR RANSOM
still stood I'd been along down the line
for a week sand when [ came back to my
town never saw man in such a
pitiable state of grief over any piece of
deviltry as that landlord was. Indeed,
he was so sorry that l became sorry for
him, and began to think he wasn't so bad
after all. That night / retired about II
o'clock, and just as | was on the point of
falling asleep | heard what / thought
was a cricket, or, rather a death watch
knocking on the heavy wall of masonry,
against which my bed stood. | could hear
the faint knocking of the bug, but not be-
ing superStitious, paid little attention TO
ing the night l rolled over easily and
fancied that l could hear that death
watch still plugging away
Just before daybreak ] heard it again,
and made up my mind to make little in
vestigation in the morning and see what
manner of insect a death watch was
anyhow. At z o'clock knock on my
door wakened me for breakfast, and at
first thought the death watch must
have found a hammer and changed his
base of operations, but when l had my
eyes fully opened | answered the knock
and heard the caller patter along down
the hall to another door. AS l lay in bed
enjoying for moment or two the pain of
having to get up, heard my death watch
again, this time in the wall near my head,
and Ilbeganto listen.
click, tick it went, then several ticks,
but 1 could not see any sign of bug or
insect.
Tick, tick, tick tick" it went again,
slower and faster and faster and slower,
irregularly l thought at first, but in a
moment or two, as became accustomed to
it, l discovered it.
WAS NOT IRREGULAR.
'Then all at once sat bolt upright in
bed with my ear almost standing
straight out from my head, and the next
minute / had laid the side of my face fat
against the wall l think my heart must
have licked ten times to that others
ticking once as 1 pressed my ear tight
against the wall, and then | almost yelled
at my discovery, but a second thought
came and kept still.
- Tick tick, tick, tickety, tickety
tick, tick, went the noise and l read the
telegraph signals.
- Help" they said, help, for Gods
sake. am the prisoner they are holding
for ransom, and the landlord is in league
with the Origans.
My wits came to me then, and taking
a hammer [ had in my small kit, kticked
back:
. Keep up your courage. / am an
American telegraph operator, and will
have you out-of that as soon as 1 can get
a force here
Then l dressed quickly, went to my
breakfast, which ate as usual, for I was
afraid to do anything to excite suspicion,
and went out to see what kind OF com
bination l could organize to save my man.
The town police, / believe, were in collu-
sion with the brigands, and l could not so
to them. At the corner of the street met
the landlord.
q" 'Ah. Mr. American, he said almost in
tears, we have heard nothing of the poor,
unfortunate gentleman. but there have
Just arrived in the town 100 government
troops, and they will hunt the murderers
down and do Justice to the poor prisoner.
There comes the gentleman in command
now, and looking as the landlord pointed.
I saw Mexican cavalry captain with two
aides walking.
. They are going to stop at my house.
exclaimed the landlord cheerfully, and
must go to prepare for them,
"He hurried away and l waited for the
officers. In a few minutes had told my
story, and in very few minutes more
they had hurried back to their company,
and | was on the tavern steps.
WITH THE LANDLORD
when the whole body and up. The land
lord was all bows and the officers came
up smiling themselves. In two minutes
more they had seized him and quietly, so
as to cause no alarm we took him to my
room and telegraphed TO the prisoner TO
know how to get into his pen. He gave
me directions as he best could and after
a difficult search, as the landlord swore
he knew nothing and coulG tell nothing,
we found our man in a little room with
heavy wall all about it and no sign of
window II was a pen built for such
purpose and was hiding place for the
landlords friends, the brigands, as we
afterward learned.
ITO make a long story short con-
cluded the traveller, I'VE got our man
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