Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-10-13
little room back, telling his boy about


to and I could hear old Jock turn the
combination out of joint. I yelled
out, but it was too late, even If the old
mans ears had been sharp, and I
found myself in the disagreeable pre-
dicament of being shut up in my own
safe and no visible means of escape.
At first it struck me as ludicrous;
then it became serious, and in few
moments I had gone to thinking as
those people think who are confronted
with tremendous moments in their
lives. I soon decided that my only
hope of getting out was through Miss
Vernon, who, when she returned,
would naturally inquire for me and in
this way old Jock would in time dis
cover that he had shut me up in the
vault. How long it would be until
Miss Vernon returned, or what chance
of the old man still being there when
she came now began to demand dis
cussion in my brain, and for minute
or two I stood still in the thick dark
ness and listened to my heart beating.
Then T remembered that we always
kept hammer in a pigeonhole near
the door, and cropping around I
found it and at once began to pound
on the door. Immediately response
came. but, of course, I did not know
who was giving it, though evidently
the boy, as the cid man could scarce
ly have heard. This gave me hope,
at once, ana I set up e regular t. ttoo
on the door with my hammer, to ali Of
which came the responses from the
outside. But it was not getting out
of my prison, and confinement was be-
coming irksome.
"For the first time now I heard
family the sound of human voices call
ing to me, but it were as if they were
miles away, and I could not distin-
guisf whose they were, though T
thought I knew Kate's. I answered
back, h'lt the place was SO thick and
heavy mat my voice frightened me,
and used the hammer instead of call.
ing. Up to this time I had not thor
oughly realized what my entombment
meant, but now it came upon me that
the only man in town except myself
who knew the combination had -goEf
away for vacation to-the seashof
senlsthHhftt senlthHhftty St. 5t0uft not ifvjj tjgbt B
great while in the vault. Certainly
not long enough to hear from either
the clerk on vacation or from the peo-
pie from whom we had bought the safe
in St. Louis. Indeed, if I stood it. for
two hours, felt I would be doing
well, for my pounding had filed the
little air I had with dust, and it was
nearly suffocating me. The pounding
from the outside increased the dust,
too, and while I could prevent myself
from doing it, and did stop, the very
fact of my stopping made those on the
outside pound harder as if to encour-
age me, when, as they thought, I was
losing hope.
"This thought came to me with o
shock 80 great that I almost collapsed.
I caught at the sides of the vault in
the inky darkness and for q minute
I became deathly sick. Following this
came almost frenzy to yell and howl
and claw at the door and scratch at my
face and tear at my hair. I had heard
of people doing that way and going
mad when lost in caves and such places,
and I felt it coming on me in that
dreadful hole. To add to the horrors
of my situation, the air was growing
rapidly worse and I could not stand
up in the vault without feeling of
the most profound nausea. 1t was the
nausea of despair, if anybody has ever
analyzed just what that is. At inter
vals, Notwithstanding the harm of it, T
would grope around for the hammer
and pound on the door, only to choke
more and to hear the muffled thuds or
the responses from the outside.
"Two feet from light and air and
love and life and utterly shut off from
them all. It was horrible to think of,
and am sure thousand times worse
than if I had been entombedin in q mine
ten thousand feet deep or had been
buried in the sands of q desert hun
dred miles from water and green trees.
Slowly I felt my strength going, and
at last could not so much as respond,
even at long intervals, to the knocking
on the outside, and I sank to the floor
with my head against the cold steel
wall between the light Of the world
and the darkness of death. AS I lay
there painting I heard the dull thud Of
the beating on the outside, and it soon
came as q beating of time, or rather
eternity; O measure of music to soothe
me to sleep, and I sank into semi-con.
sciousness and seemed to be dreaming.
"You know, they say that when a
man is dying under unnatural or vio-
lent circumstances all his past life
comes back to him, even in minute de-
tail. 1t did not quite appear to me
that all my life was passing in review
before me in my dungeon, but it did
seem as if the youth of my life had
come back to me, and I thought I was
once again in that little telegraph sta
ton on the Missouri River catching
the clickity- -click-click Of the instru-
ment on my table, and which always
seemed to me as important as ships
deck is to on admiral. I seemed to
be hearing the calls of operators all
along the line, but I gave no response,
and then the scene changed, as it does
so suddenly and unacoountably in
dreams, and I was at my instrument in
the bank listening with all lovers
eagerness for the first call Of Kate
Vernon's over the wire I had put ur
for her.
"It was very faint and far of, and ]
think I must have smiled rs T bert my
ear closer to the instrument to catch
the sound, having in mind my sweet
heart at the other end of the wire es.
saying her first attempt in handling
the lightning. For moment it was
vague enough, with its modest little
o1;olyo4 oil iol,rlirl, hnt all at onca II