The times., 1898-01-02

wered There's more than one door to this
place. In fact, IN thinking that's only
a skylight, anyhow"
How long viii the victuals last, cap
tain?'
'.rwo days. full rations: four days,
half ratious; week, light rations."
But / don't believe the candles VIII last
as long l said.
Pretty nearly, Harry. Perhaps longer.
We won't need 10 keep a light nights, and
one cande is as good to explore with as
two
we to3x the basket and went down
the caves in tue direction Ye~haa ful-
lowed before But the mud ami water
were everywhere, and eshau TO 20
lung ways before we found good peti'
room, as the captain called It We at
last bit on a room with sandy lioor
and rounded ceiling, ten or dozen
feet high. We had To climb up some
what to get into 1t, which accounted Tor
it's dryness The floor was hollow,
like shallow bowl, and looked as IL ~
had once sbeen small lake the water
having drfed up amp left tie sand There
was "A little crsyicf at one side running
down wedge shaped, in which were
few stalacttes, and pool Of clear water
beiow wlIic. was sweet and good. We
tranped around ON the sand till we were
warm, and then lay down for tile night.
| got 10 sleep at laft, and though WoR
up a good many tHnes With the cola ana
strangeness, still felt pretty rested in
the morning As fur the captain, he de-
clarcd that he had never slept better.
We were a good deal puzzled In the morn
ing by q certain thing, and for many days
later. This was strange heating SOUND
which 1 heard. or felt, / could scarce tell
which, as l lay awake on tile sand In the
morning while the captain was yet asleep.
ha oh, rn-f nnth
and often | lost 1t altogether. When the
captain awakened l told him of it; at
first ne could not make 1T out, but by lay
ing his ear TO the wall, where 1t was
palmer, he did; but could no more explain
it than /. 1t seemed like very dull and
far-away pounding. and beat twenty or
twenty-five times a minute by the cap
tain's watch. We listened long, but knew
no more what IL was when we gotthrough
than when we began. When we went back
under the dome and looked up we could
see nothing of the spot or light, but TINS
was no mystery at all, as we knew the
water had again covered IL with sticks and
brush
NOW, though l never wrote anything be
fore teycept letters and such like) | am
not foolish enough to try to describe the
terrible next six days which the captain
and passed through in that horrible cave.
Never did know anything bad before
nor since, and though the capita in all the
while tried to make light of it, and kept
referring darkly TO worse things which he
had gone through when following the deep
sea, still, know this, that man may
sail all the deep seas to the end of his
days-ay. and take his vacat ions in the
desert, SO to put it-and yet never find
anything so bad. These two monsters we
fought day aud night, to wit: Darkness
ana Hunger; and what Is worse? And ever
the diving and turning, crazy, squeaking
bats,
So viii say this only: That for these
six days we pushed our way through the
darkness Of that cave burrowed our wa Y
through the darkness like moles through
the ground, searching for way out-and
found none. 1t was well for us that those
bats were small. their will was good
enough to destroy us: but they squea ked
at us and Slid up and down on the air,
Jerking themselves this way and that
through the rooms and tunnels.
Twenty times we shouted ourselves hoarse
under the dome where we had entered, our
voices growing each day weaker; twenty
times we went through the whole cave,
the captain day by day dividing our stock
of food smaller and smaller; twenty times
Tit seemedl we era wled down int each hole
and wriggled up into each crack, every
hour that we could dinly look into each
and the matches fewer. To this day it
makes my flesh creep to hear a bat squea k,
and when one dips at me l always dodge.
But have said enough tand too much)
of this; on the fifth day the last of our
yictuals were gone. The candles were
gone, too. except for Fart of one. But
it was o'clock by the captains watch, and
il we had not lost our, reck koning, night
and not morning, so we dragged ourselves
to the bedroom, put out the candle, care
iully stood it in tfesand, and lay down to
sleep again l think our sleep was fever
ish and wax eful: 1.,know mine was; and
I dreamed Of all manner Of things to eat,
as had for two nights before. The strange
throbbing Which we heard only in the bed
room had grown louder, but we were not
disturbed by it, as we never heard it at
night; by which we had concluded. this
much about it-tlIat it could not be made
by water or any snchs thing.
In the morning. thei captain said to
me:
Harry, there's ,potllIng to eat. I'm
afraid we're in bad fix He moved
nearer and took my hand in his as