The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-07-10
VIII.

Ao0Hu -AlA1SSi yluS Ou Ills udch III
what appeared to be the bottom of a
well; 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 a moment
he had vague idea that he had
stumbled ard 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 yice-fike
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
reached; even when this was done, it
was only beginning, and the first faint
streaks of dawn were fi1tering through
the aperture overhead when he finally
rose stiffly 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 imprisoned in
a crevice-cave much like the one he hal
explored two days before 1t occurred
to him at once that it might be con-
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 Mc.Natb
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 a narrow fisSure like the
one in which he had lost the pick and
the lamp, he could not find the missing
articles, though he lost no time in max
ing a careful search for them. In do
. another discovery which was of much
more immediate Importance: reaching
down into the crannies of the assure,
his hand found a pool of water, and he
drank gratefully, dipping up the cool
liquid by spoonfuls in ibis 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 he the trunk of small tree
hurled by some accident of wind or
lightning through the opening above,
and began to 60 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
Iatimers of a possible ally. 90
eff 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? a If they had
wanted to kill me, they certainly had it
oil their own way last night; a very
small domestic cat would have made n
better resistance than / did. No, that
isn't 10; theydon'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 ques-
, ton will answer itself in a few hours
az the most, for they haven't 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, I suppose, he's
sitting in his Office with the comfort
able under-thought that it'll be dinner
time before long. Lucky fellow, not
to know what it is to sit in a 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 Tn not, what's the
alternative? Let's hare another look
at the resources"
After overhauling the rope and COLI
ing it beside the log. he searched his
pockets, but found nothing useful
therein. except q small penknife
There they are-say 40 feet of rope, a
piece of wood six or seven feet long, and
toy pocketknife; and this hole is
about 80 feet deep, I should judge.
There isn't very much to work with,
but I've pulled many a hero out of worse
scrapes than this with much less
The humor of the comparison pro-
voked laugh, and then he wondered
what had become of his depression of
the previous day. The explanation
came suddenly when he ran his solilo-,
guy back to the point where he had con-
.clutled that his connection with the
Latimers was the reason for the assault
upon him. 1t seemed in a way to bring
him nearer to Hester, and for time
there was q cheerful enthusiasm in the
thought that other and compelling
hands hpd pushed him over the dividing
line between his pusillanimous resolu-
ition to run away and an active particle
patton in the quarrel which involved
her family. There was little comfort