The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-07-22

oo"i"Sou uy tuo iiSut, tHef IOuSnt
through the swarms of insects and en-.
tered what seemed the crater of an ex.
tinct volcano. The terrible smell was
from masses of flies underfoot. Warm
fumes still arose from the rocks.
High above them were the apertures
through which came the daylight.
"It is burial place! exclaimed
the explorers.
"Balister knew nothing Of the de.
light of unearthing the traces of ex.
tinct nations, his business was to man.
age mules, but he was filled with won.
der to behold rows upon rows Of erect
skeletons along the walls. The bones
of the mysterious dead were covered
with flies.
''The next discovery was that the
arms and ankles of the skeletons were
decorated with bracelets. Pendants
hung from grisly necks upon empty
ribs and diaphragms!
ut was Balister who cried, 'They
are gold'
Almost blinded by the attacks of
insects, the men began to wrest the
treasure from the spectres of an un-
known past
"Balister knocked grinning skulls
of queens and mobiles from their shoul-
ders and strung his arms with rich
necklaces of virgin gold.
Then arose q sound like the glib
bering of ten thousand fiends.
frightened and half running for
the mouth of the tunnel, the men re-
allied that it was not the angry mur-
murings of the ghosts of forgotten
race. but the uprising of countless
millions and billions of flies!
''The swarms blotted out the riffs of
daylight. The torches were extin-
guished, and the men fell upon their
faces to escape the attack.
"Then, joining hands, they sought
to find the tunnel through which they
had entered. The pests got under
their clothes, under the cloths over
their faces, and they were bitten in a
thousand places.
"Balister said his companions
screamed with agony!
'They groped along the sides of the
cavern, but everywhere their frantic
hands felt nothing but the bony legs
OF the dead.
"Balister, gentlemen, was not a fat,
spectacled scientist. He was a strong,
fearless young man of the stuff that
never surrendered. Yet he said that
he felt his mind melting like a snow
ball in an oven. He wanted to scream
and gibber!
"But, observe Missouri instinct all
this time-he clung to his booty!
He does not know how long the
three men struggled in that avalanche
OF insects that choked them, that bit
them in the gullet even as they were
swallowed.
'Balister lost hold of his COM
panions. Their screams, he said,
sounded mutiled in the angry roar of
the myriads of flies which were eating
them alive!
almost ready to fall and have his
bones picked, Balister, by Missouri
instinct, drew his gun and began to
shoot
although shooting at flies was
mere madness, Balister said that the
act of shooting saved his sanity. 1t
was so1natural an act for Missourian,
gentlemen!
"'I yelled Balister said to me,
when l saw, by the flashes, the mouth
of the tunnelr
Come on!' he shouted to his com
panions, shooting as he ran and STUN
bled through the tunnel. The flies
pursued him every step.
'He plunged into the court of the
ruined temple, threw down his booty,
and there tore off his clothes and
brushed from his flesh the flies that
clung like leeches. He was black
with them, black and red-for the
blood ran in streams.
Running to the camp he smeared
himself with ointment.
$50 engrossed was Balister with his
own torments that he did not, for the
time, think of his employers.
Gentlemen, they never came out!"
"Balister assured me on his honor
that he went back the whole length of
the tunnel, in vain, thinking he might
find them lying there unconscious.
''He told me he remained among
the ruins several days. He couldn't
sleep because, at night, he thought he
heard screams in the tunnel.
"Once he screwed up his courage to
go to the mouth of the passage and
call when he heard the screams. He
said he thought he heard mocking
laughter in reply.
'Balister concluded that the Mexi-
can authorities would laugh at his
story, shoot him as a murderer and
take his gold.
Possessed with this idea, he hid
the gold in the pack saddles of his
mules and made his way to the coast
without attempting to find the rest of
the expedition, which searched vaialy
for the men who were eaten alive.