The herald., 1898-09-04

and my arms and hands were now free
to recommence operations with an
other set of hook and stirrups, which
1 still had in my bag. The shape and
inclination of the hook itself, as we'll as
the way my weight hung upon it, pre-
vented it from having disposition to
work out of its socket. while the down.
ward bend of it, next to the shank, kept
it from turning around. With this same
contrivance l had ascended the Mesa
Encantada of New Mexico. The porous
red sandstone with which l now had to
do was much easier to work than the
granite Of the mesa, and 1 had no DOUBT
of the success of my enterprise. I had
five hundred feet to climb, each oper-
alton using up about five minutes, and
advancing me about four feet. 1t would
therefore take me ten hours to get to
the top of the rock.
A very agreeable surprise awaited
me, however. l had been hard at work
for about a quarter of an hour, and
was busily engaged in picking away at
my fourth hole when, suddenly and
without warning, l felt some object
strike me on the back of the head. l
naturally desisted from my work and
looked about me, and was not little
surprised to find an inch rope of good
Italian hemp, with moose at the end
of it, dangling just before my nose,
which rope hung down from .he top of
the cliff, rising five hundred feet above
my head.
/ saw that the moose was being low
cred slowly past me, and l caught hold
of it and gave it a good stout pull. At
once it came to a standstill, and pres
emily l felt an answering tug from
above. The moose was now about on
level with my knees. l placed one
foot within it and bore with most of
my weight upon the rope. In mo-
ment / was conscious of being lifted
1 detached my apparatus from the
rocks and gave myself up with all the
| confidence in the world to the delight
full assistance which had so opportune-
| ly come to me.
In five minutes l had gone up fully
| three hundred feet. and was conse-
quently a thousand feet above the sur
| face of the lake. | was not bothered
with any apprehension that my friends
above might let me drop, for the rea-
son that I never allow my thoughts to
dwell upon anything disagreeable.
was about to win my bet with the
| count, l had made the interesting dis
| covery that the top Of the mesa was
inhabited, and as / was upon the point
Of crowning and surprising all my pre-
vious achievements in the way ol
| climbing, l was supremely triumphant
and happy. When l had still about one
hundred and fifty feet to go, l passed
a cave-like hole in the face of the rock
a hole about two and a half feet II
diameter, and running inward to suci
4! a depth that I could not see the end O.
it. 1t seemed of small Importance t.
me at the time, but afterward l ha6
good reason to remember it.
Very soon I could hear a creaking a
of windlass upon which the cable wa
| being wound, and 1 could now see tina
| the latter ran upon a pulley, whicl
was mortiseu into the end of
! stout timber projecting some three fee
over the edge of the cliff. When wa
within fifteen feet'of the top, the wind
lass suddenly stopped working and
remained stationary. The face of al
old man. a broad and jovial face, wit
watery gray eyes, a Roman nose and
white. stubby beard, looked down o.
me, over the parapet, and I heard my
self thus accosted: