Morris tribune., 1895-04-10

living on the ruins OF the sanitar1nm
adjacent to the uncovered shaft, from
which issued wavering thin blue
smoke.
Suspccting some kind of treachery
Stocking proposed to go down alone,
and after some delay in getting ropes
he was lowered into the hole. Finding
everything enveioped in darkness and
silence at the bottom of the shaft, he
had to come back for assistance and
lanterns, and thus provided and ac-
companied by an officer he rode
scended with the growing conviction
that Hendricks had withdrawn all his
forces from the cave and abandoned it,
The moment he arrived at the
mouth of the arena passage and held
up the lantern he perceived that some-
thing extraordinary had taken place,
On either side of the entrance to the
shaft were the bodies of men--two of
them had apparently been hurled
against the wall of the arena with ter
rife force, for their bodies were dislo-
Gated and their skulls fractured, and
they were covered with blue mould
that made their faces indistinguish-
able. A few seconds later the condi-
ton of the arena disclosed the destruc-
ton that had taken place. The resi-
dences on the western wall were shat
tered and in ruins. The machinery of
the great dynamo stood out gaunt and
awry like the bones of corpse from
which the flesh had been suddenly
torn away. Not a sound was heard.
Here and there bodies lay exposed
upon the floor of the arena with the
clothes torn from them.
Word was Immediately sent above
for men and lights, and a strong recon
noitering force was with difficulty
lowered into the cave.
Then the full extent of the appalling
disaster was investigated. Stocking
forced his way with some difficulty into
the rooms where he had spent So many
hours, and there with the lanterns Of
the men held high and throwing a dis
NAL effulgence on the scene he saw in
extricably mingled with the debris ct
the place the members of the group to
whom Calicot had communicated the
last words. All wore the same hor-
rible mask of blue mold. Hendricks
himself was sitting in a chair, but his
neck was dislocated and his head hung
down upon the side of his body. Cali
cots body was in the corridor. 1t
alone had escaped the blast of disfgur-
sr emilia
and in his hand was a pad covered
with writing.
Stocking wrenched it from the dead
fingers and held it to the lantern. In
distorted hand was written: "All
particulars on my person. have saved
you and the country. 1t was my duty.
am happy
Shocked beyond all power OF speech,
Stocking silently secured the papers,
and went with the party through the
coal passage to the mouth of the ro-
tunda and there the most stupendous
feature of this unprecedented tragedy
was revealed
The whole of that great space was COW
cred with blue corpses, in every conceive
able attitude of sudden death, a blue
stratum of smoke lying above them
and still depositing it's sulphur and
carbon upon their forms.
Death reigned. 1t had come like u
lightning stroke. 1t had spared notli-
ing. The end of the dismantled cleo
trio engine, hurled from the trestlc,
rested upon the floor of the rotdnda
with its tender hanging to the iron
benches. Against the eastern wall
hundreds of men had been hurled in a
mass, and there commingled in sick
ening pulp, from which stared the blue
and hideous faces and poled the I'M
wrought limbs
As Stocking slowly realized what his
friend had done a sense of his heroism
overcame everything else. He opened
the papers and read the hastily written
from which this account
has been compiled.
81 got" it said, 'sthe4 dynamite |
cartridge from Laport's worlroom,
and also the fuse. I let it down the
tube to the floor of the
It burned twenty minutes
/ have made notes of all the disclosed
plans. Let the government act quick. |
The brains and the organization are
destroyed. |
.'The great Laran rebellion is at an
end"
- ~ VS. |