The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-12

voice.
Keep aall-heW be done, too, i'm a
moment poor devil" whispered the aid
| jutant, when the sentry made motion to
| rise.
A minute passed, and the sound of NUT
| tered prayer had died away HES
done now, get up" said the adju.ant.
! 'What-say, what the mischief does that
mean? Where's Bretano?" =
why! he's gone! They must have
| Slipped out together!' cried the aston
1shed ssnl.ry; lets hurry up and notify
the guardp'
Dent you stir-stay right where you
are said THE pseudo adjutant. There
must be something wrong. and I'll see
where they went, but don't you str or
you'll get yourself into serious trouble-
I'll BE- back in a minute"
He hurried off, and bslnone the officer
of the guard had finished his dfnmelr
BTenltano, the supposed adjutant and The
probably equally spurious priest had
reached the wilderness of willow swamps
beyond tine Cit gates. All the sentry
at the gate could tell was his recollection
that the two strangers (prieSt and ad-
JutanD had gone out together, and That
a few minutes aftelri he presented arms to
another officer whom he supposed to be-
hong ito the fort garrison.
The cacerones Of Nimwegen sill point
out the spot where Jan de Hall, the son
of a political outlaw 1eaped over the
liver nampartS and disappeared under a
voley of bullslts-whether mortaIly
wounded or With suicidal intent ltte
mar'ksmen were for the moment unable
to say. He had been confined in a base
ment e''l of the old fort for month
and w ID in vain for a chance to COM
munlcats with his friends till they con-
trived to smuggle i'm a volunteer pdfs-
oner and sent him a message from one
of the upper tiers of cells. The letter
detallIed scheme of escape, but ended
with the words: THE winter rains have
st in; wait till the river rises"
That week heavy ralnstorm flooded
the lowlands, and the next day Jan de
Hall avaiIsd himself of the privilege to
join his fellow prisoners in their noon
day outing on the terrace of the ravelin.
isn't it geltting quite chilly, lie
marked one of the jaalbirds.
"Chilly!' sneered De Hall. II wouldn't
ask for finer weather-too warm, If any
thing" suddenly taking off his coat and
vest.
Hold ON there! What the mischief
ara you going to do?" asked the sentry
and by way Of reply De Hall took short
run and leaped the railing that crowned
the steep river wall. The vertical plungn
exceeded fifty feet, and there seemed
nothing suspicious about the circum-
stance that the prototype of Sam Patch
sank out of sight at once. The sentry
had fired his muSket without a moments
loss of time, and supplementary shots
rarlg out from the batstion and from the
arch of the river gale. But Hall was a
champion of Aquatic gymnastics and
swan under water for nearly a minute
before he ventured to stop and, slowly
rising, turn his face for a breath cf fresh
air. By good luck, the swoll N river
was covered with rubbish and nobtdy
noticed his brief emerg nee, nor THE
whirl of THE current when he dived again
noticed and unsupported he thus reached
a promontory of anchored lumber-boats,
and by rising at shorter and shorter in
tervals at last found his way 10 the
wall of CELLAR with a ventilation fiuia
.Sloping out, downward, to prevent the
flooding of the basement in every river
rise AS he expected, a rope ladder dam
gled from the bottom of that flue, and
minute later he found himself in a snug
cellar, where dry clothing and supply
of ref1i shments had been awaiting his
arrival for several days.
The Danes have a tradition about a
bold sea rover, the buccaneer Vonved.
who eluded the pursuit of his enemies
for years, and being finally captured by
direachery, offered his jaHler bet that no
hangHlan would ever get rope around
his neck. The day for his execution had
approached, when the turnlleys onle
morning found their prisoner dead and
wondered how and when he had con-
tr.ved to procure the requisite poison.
His wife, the next day, got permission
to remove the body, and only a week af-
ter indisputable evidence proved that the
supposed ccrpSe had rejoined his crew of
despeladoes in a Swedish seaport. He
had once passed a year with a gang of
Greek bandits, who had taught him a
chemical trick or two, and his wager
was founded ON the possession of drug
that had the strange effect to suspend
the appreciable signs of animation fer
a about tweuty-four hours.
A Turkish outlaw persuaded his friends
to brufse his face and spatter his Jacket
with blood to secure his passage in a
boat load of dead bodies that were going
to be sent across the Danube for inslsr-
ment in a MusSulman cemetery; but a
still boldsir startegem was that off the
Galician robber chief Rosen, who I'M
tated the wall of a child on the roof of
his bastile, and then effected his descent
from the opposite end of the building
while all the sentries stood crowded to-
gether, trying to catch another sound of
the strange shr'ieks that had repeatedly
mingled with the bowls of the night
wind. W.