St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-05-04

lying on the ruins of the saniterium
adjacent to the uncovered shaft, from
which issued Wavering thin blue
smoke.
Suspecting 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 envsloped 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 rede-
seended 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that Hendricks had withdrawn all his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 sen1e-
thing extraordinary had taken place.
On either side of the entrance 10 the
shaft were the bodies of men-two of
them had apparently been hurled
against the wall of the arena with ter
rifie force, for their bodies were dislo-
Gated and their skulls fractured, and
they were covered with a blue mould
that made their faces indistinguish-
able A few seconds later the condi-
ton of the arena disclosed the destrue-
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 a 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 tho
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 hadspent 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 of
the place the members of the group to
whom Calicet 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. It
alone had escaped the blast of disflgur-
ing color; his face wore a grim smile
and in his hand was a pad covered
| with writing.
Stocking wrenched it from the dead
fingers and held tito the lantern. In
a distorted hand was written: ssAll
particulars on my person. have saved
you and the country. twas myeduty.
am happy
Shocked beyond all power of speech,
Stocking silently secured the papers,
and went with the ta3saaagh taas.
coal passage to the mouth Of the ro-
tunda and there the most stupendous
| feature of this unprecedented tragedy
| was revealed
whole of that great space was COW
cred with blue corpses, in every conceiv-
able attitude of sudden death, a blue
stratum of smoke lying above them
| and still depositing its sulphur ard
carbon upon their forms.
Death reigned. It had come like a
lightning stroke. 1t had spared moth
ing. The end of the dismantled elee-
| trie engine, hurled from the trestIe,
rested upon the floor of the rotunda
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 a sick
ening pulp, from which stared the blue
and hideous faces and .,olSed the III
| wrought limbs.
As Stocking slowly realized what his
friend had done sense of his heroism
overcame every thing else. He opened
| the papers and read the hastily written
| memorandum, from which this account
| has been compiled.
| 81 got" it said, 'sthe dynamite
cartridge from Laport's worlsroom,
| and also the fuse. I let it down the
| ventilating tube to the floor of the
magazine. It burned twenty minutes.
/ have made notes of all the disclosed
| plans. Let the government act quick.
| The brains and the organization are
destroyed.
.'Fhe great Laran rebellion is at All
end
THE END.