Middletown transcript., 1897-08-28


are goldI'
"Almost blinded by the attacks Of
insects, the men began to wrest the treas
ure from the spectres of an unknown
past.
s.Balister knocked grinning skulls Of
queens and mobiles from their shoulders
and strung his arms with rich neck
lsces of virgin gold.
"Then arose sound like the gibber-
ing Of ten thousand fiends.
frightened and half running for the
mouth of the tunnel, the men realized
that it was not the angry mGrmurings
Of the ghosts Of forgotten race, but
the uprising of countless millions and
billions of fiesl
"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 thous-
and places.
"Balister said his companions
screamed with agonyl
''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 fat,
spectacled scientist. He was strong.
fearless young man OF the stuff that
never surrendered. Yet he said that he
felt his mind melting like SNOWFALL
in an oven. He wanted to scream and
gibberl
"But, observe Missouri instinct all
this time-he clung to his bo0tyl
"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 biscompanions.
Their screams, he said, sounded muf-
fed in the angry roar of the myriads Of
flies which were eating them alivel
"Almost ready to fall and have his
b ones picked, Balister, by Missouri in
stinct, drew his gun and began to
shO0tl
Although shooting at flies was
mere madness, Balistsr said that the
act of shooting saved his sanity. 1t
was so natural an act for Missourlan,
gentlemen!
81 yelled Balister said to me,
when l saw. by the flashes, the m outh
of the tunnel'
Come Onp he shouted to his COM
panions, shooting AS be ran and stum-
bled through the tunnel. The flies pur-
sued him every step.
"He plunged into the court of the
ruined temple, threw down his booty,
and there tore eff his clothes and
brushed from his flesh the flies that
cluDg like leeches. He was black with
them, black and red-for lie blood ran
in streams.
Running to the camp he smeared
himself W ith 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!'
HBalister 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.
ssHe told me he remained among
the ruins several days. He couldn't
sleep because, at night, he thought he
heard screams in the tunnel.
'sOnce be screwed up his courage TO
90 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 q 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 yainly
for the men who were eaten alive.
i am perfectly sane,' he told me,
but l can't bear the sight of fiy." ,
.-NaW York Journal.