Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1895-06-18

the mouth Of thu shaft, that she could
only grope her way in despair to the
black abyss before he-.
But she found the ladder at last, with
its top fortunately projecting above the
floor of the gallery.
Very slowly and painfully, and in ut
ter darkness, she made her way down,
her delicate hands torn with splinters
from the half-decayed rungs of the old
ladders, and her feet, protected only by
her frail shoes, aching with a burning
pain.
Once more she reached the ground.
"Wilders Wilders!" she screamed.
The echoes of her voice rolled through
those spbterranean caverns with awful
distinctness repeated in the hollow
chambers, till it seemed to her heated
brain as though fends were mocking
her.
Then terrible, soul-sickening ST.
lence.
She could hear her heart beat as she
strained her ears to catch some faint
reply, but all in vain. The terrible
step must be taken, theIlast ladder must
! be descended
Flinging herself on hands and knees
she CROPPED her way to the edge Of the
| precipice. All, what is this? A wall.
| She knew that she had taken wrong
direction and was wandering into one
of the interminable passages of the de-
serted mine where a sure and lingering
death awaited her. Many were the
| stories that flashed across her burning
brain of miners, who, once having lost
themselves in these subterraneous lab
| yrinths, could never win their way back
to safety. What could she then, a
weak girl, hope for? All sense of To-
cality seemed to have deserted her.
| Gathering herself for one supreme eff
fort, she shrieked:
"Wilders, Wilders Wilders!"
The echoes once more died away in
the distance Then-could she believe
her ears?-a long, low, agonizing groan.
The direction of the spot where some
thing human was in, agony was now
known to her. Once more on hands
and knees she CROPPED till she felt with
trembling hand the Shiny wall of the
last gallery.
With eager eyes she pierced the dark
chasm.
Seventy feet below, like star,
glittered a storm-lantern, and close by
it she thought she recognized human
body lying prone on the ground
''Wilders! Wilders!" she cried again
All! This time an answer.
From the depths below came a faint
cry for help, then all again was silent.
Then Elsie knew that the last peril
GUS step must be taken. Better had she
retraced her way up those feeble lad
ders and sought for help, but her gen.
erous Impotence brooked no delay.
She did not hesitate, though she knew
that some of the rungs had been tam
pered with and that one false step
would hurl her to destruction. Calmly
but quickly she reasoned that each
stave must be tried before she trusted
her weight upon it, and to effect this
most readily she tied the long shawl
she had been wearing over every rung
above her head as she descended, not
loosening her hold of it until security
of foothold was positive.
Suddenly as she rested for moment
the rung which had just borne her with
apparent safety snapped like broken
reed, and but for the shawl to which
she desperately chung she would have
shared the fate of the prospector.
With one desperate effort she let go
the shawl and chung to the sides of the
l. 4 L. Il f.. i
ing but two bare poles, and, letting her
body swing, hand over hand, inch by
inch, she lowered herself to earth. 1t
was the feat of gymnast, done by
frail girl, thoughtless of the peril,
which was mercifully hidden from her
eyes by the friendly darkness.
The light guided her to the pros
trate figure of him for whom she had
dared SO much. How lucky! The