The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-03-18
CHAPTER VIII-Contiuued.

CHAPTER VIII-Continued.
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 be the trunk of small tree
hurled by some accident of wind or
lightning through the opening above,
and began to go 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 raclled 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
Latimers of possible ally.
eff that's the case," he unused, speak
ing aloud for the sake of the companion
ship of his own voice, what do they
mean to do with me? If they had
wanted to kill me, they certainly had it
all their own way last night; a very
small domestic cat would have made n
better resistance than did. No, that
isn't it; they don'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 CON-
| forting conclusion that they don't
intend making away with me, the ques-
ton will answer itself in few hours
at 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, 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 crack in
| the face of the earth, speculating 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 I'm not, what's the
| at the resources"
After overhauling the rope and coil
ing it beside the log, he searched his
pockets, but found nothing useful
| therein, except a 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, l should judge.
There isn't very much to work with,
but I've pulled many hero out of worse
scrapes than this with much less"
The humor of the comparison pro-
voiled 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-
cluded that his connection with the
Latimers was the reason for the assault
upon him. 1t seemed in way to bring
him nearer to Hester, and for a time
there was cheerful enthusiasm in the
thought that other and compelling
hands had pushed him over the dividing
line between his pusillanimous resolu-
tion to run away and an active partici-
patton in the quarrel which involved
her family. There was little comfort
in the contemplation of the part he
might be required to take in the feud;
the battle was still to be fought with
his weakness, and he had the fresh and
humiliating example of a few hours be-
fore to remind him that he had not yet
made a beginning. The recollection
of this discouraged him again, and all
the arguments that had presented
themselves in defense of his plan of re-
treat came back with redoubled empha-
sis. He was not sure that Hester loved
him; if she did, she would despise him
when she found him out; it would be
ineXcusably wrong for him to win her
love under false pretenses; she had told
him only last night what she would ex-
pectin the man of her choice. He pushed
the tormenting thoughts aside, and
brought himself down with a jerk to
the present and it's demands. I'm not
going to dispute withsthe weak-kneed
devil any more" he muttered; 1.-The first
thing to do is to get out of here, and
then I'll leave it with her; if she honors
me enough to make me her defender,
I'll make shift to fight her battles if
l have to hire some one to hold me
while do it,"
Under the inspiration of this conclu-
sion he went to work patiently-and res
elutely, trying the first plan that sug-
gested itself. Using his knife for a
chlsel, he attempted to cut inches for
hand and foot holds in the wall, perse-
vering until both blades of the small
7 tool were worn down to useless
stumps. When the failure of the knife
put an end to the eXpedient, he exam
iped the narrower part OF. the crevice to
see if he could not climb to the roof by
bracing himself from wall to wall AS
! it was reasonably evident that the gay
ern had originally been nothing more
( than an irregular crack in the sand
stone. open at the top through its en-.
, tire length, and afterward gradually
, covered in by slow accumulations OF
J earth and debris interviewer with twigs
and grass roots, he argued that it would
be comparatively easy to dig through
this thin covering if he could obtain a
foothold near enough to the roof to en-.