The Irish standard., 1896-03-07


and the three men scattered in mad
fight toward the cove.
VIII. ,,
A suBTERRANEAN METAMoRPHOs1s.
When Ringbrand opened his eyes he
found himself lying on his back in
what appeared to be the bottom of q:
we'll; at least, that was his second i'm
preston. With the first CLEANS of re-
turning consciousness there was no
recollection of the events Immediately
preceding his fall, and for moment
he had vague idea that he had
stumbled and hurt himself in the road,
and that the clouds had covered all but
the small patch of sky directly over
head where the stars were still visible.
Then memory came back, and he re-
called the details of the capture up to
the sudden blank following the plunge
into the hole between the powders. A
sharp twinge of pain bridged the in
terval and reminded him that there
were two present and pressing sources
of discomfort in the gnarled log across
which he was lying and in the vice-like
pressure of the rope which still bound
his arms to his sides. To wriggle out
of the uncomfortable position was easy,
but loosening the rope was another mat
ter. The knot had been drawn tight
by the jerk of his fall, and it was an
hour or more before he succeeded in
working it around where it could b.:
reached; even when this was done, it
was only beginning, and the first faint
streaks of dawn were filtering through
the aperture overhead when he finally
rose stiffiy and swung his arms to start
the suspended circulation.
In little while it was light enough
to enable him to see his surroundings,
and he found that he was i'm prisoned in
a crevicc-cave much like the one he had
explored two days before. 1t occurred
to him at once that it might be con-
tinuation Of the same cavern. or that
possibly he might be in the very
chamber into which he had tried to
penetrate; but this seemed unlikely, for
two reasons. One was that he could
not make the locality of the McNahb
tunnel agree with the general direction
of his wanderings of the night previous;
and the other was even more cOnvinc-
ing. for, while his cell terminated at one
extremity in rarrow assure like the
one in which he ha9 lost the pick and
the lamp. he could not find the missing
articles, though he Loot no time in max
ing careful search for them. In do
ing this. however, he stumbled upon
another discovery which was of much
more immediate Importance: reaching
down into the crannies of the fissure,
his hand found pool of water, and he
drank gratefully. dipping up the cool
liquid by spoonf1lls in his followed
palm.
After this. he gave an hour to minute
examination of the boundaries of his,
prison. scrutinizing the walls and care
fully weighing every possible chance Of
escape. At the end of this preliminary
survey he sat down upon the log, which
proved to be the trunk of a small tree
hurled by some accident of wind or
lightning through the opening above,
and began to go over the events of the
past few days, in the hope of finding
something TO account for the mysteri-
Gus attack and imprisonment. In this
effort he racked his brain to little pur-
pose, and. after repeatedly scouting the
idea as absurd. he finally accepted the
conclusion that the Bynums had in
some manner connected him with the
fortunes Of their enemies, and had
taken prompt measures to deprive the,
Latimers Of possible ally.
IF that's the case" he unused, speak,
ing aloud for the sake of the companion
chip of his own voice. what do they
mean to do with me? If they had
wanted to kill me, they certainly hadit
ali their own way last night; very
small domestic cat would have made q
better resistance than I did. No. that
isfi't it: they don t mean murder; they're
only trying to get me out of the way
for awhile: And the next thing is; for
how long? Keeping in view the COM
forting conclusion that they don't
intend making away with me, the cues
ton will answer itself in few hours
at the most, for they haven given me-
anything to eat. Which reminds ME
that I'm pretty hungry, now" he looked
ruefully at his watch. Tom Ludlow
had his breakfast two hours ago, and
at the present moment. suppose, he's
sitting in his Office with the comfort
able thought that-it'H be dinner
time before long. Lucky fellow. not
to know what it is to sit in crack in
the face of the earth. specializing on the
doubtful possibilities of future meal
times. Well, / presume the next thing
Is to decide whether or not I'm to- sit
here and wait for some one to come and
pull me out; and if I'm not. what the !:
alternative? Let's have another look
at the resources u
q After oyerhauling the rope and coll Z
ing it beside the log, he searched his
pockets, but found nothing useful
ssherein, except small penknife.
There they are say 40 feet of rope =
piece Of wood six orseven feet lonE, and,
d toy poke kni lie and this hnle Us 4
about 80 feet deer, Il should jlddg lsess
There isn't very much To- work ,xit Il
but pull ~ out of s1csseS I,
iIl.il L \ l,l lsill: