El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-31
A NIGHT OF HORROR.

Samuel Hardesty went to work for the
night to watch the furnace and feed 1t
with fuel.
man he relieved. winds changed, and
the stokehole roars again."
''All right" said Hardesty, and the
man took his departure, while the new
conner prepared for his long night watch
and stood gazing on the sunny colored
flames dancing in the furnace--scarlet,
crimson, blue, green, yellow, orange and
purple-colors of every shade and tint
But Samuel Hardesty saw not the bright
hues of the roaring furnace. The sight
was too familiar, and his mind was taken
up by the quarrel he had had the night
before with fellow workman concerning
the threatened strike. There had been
high words which ended in the heat OF
discussion by Hardesty calling his oppo-
nent ga fool" receiving blow in return
and then dashing his assailant to the
ground. where he lay, stunned and bleed
ing.
His fit of anger passed, Hardesty an
swered the murmurs and dissatisfaction
shown among the onlookers by stopping
down and helping his adversary to rise,
but the man no sooner recovered himself
little than with a fearful and blasphe-
nous oath he shook his fist at Hardesty
and staggered out of the place.
The night was advancing, and again
and again the watcher heaped fuel between
the jaws of the Unsuitable roaring monster
he tended, and, utterly needless of the
noise and fiery glare around, he stood time
after time watching the glow.
ct didn't want to hurt the 1ad," he
muttered. "a fool called him, and so
he was or he would have kept his hands
off me, for man can't stand that. I'd
have-what was that?' he exclaimed,
starting, for he fancied he saw q figure
pass the light.
"I'm all wrong tonight" he muttered,
"and full Of fancies. I could have sworn
some one was looking over my shoulder
half an hour ago."
To vary his lonely watch Hardesty went
to the steam engine, down to the stoke
hole and then after speaking to the man
in charge there he returned to his own
solitary post.
After awhile he felt drowsy, and his
eyes closed for q few moments, but an I'M
defined dread of something dreadful about
to happen caused him to start up, rub his
eyes and look anxiously around.
"What can be the matter with meP"
cried Hardesty, jumping up and stamping
about to get rid of a numbness in his feet.
cit seems just as If a chap had got the
horrors. feel that creepy and shuddery
don't know what to do, and know if
horrors that ever came into a fellows
head
1t seemed as though a watchful spirit
kept whispering to him of impending evil
and reused him to battle with the over
whelming sense of drowsiness that came
upon him, to keep off which he had sew
eral times taken draft from the can of
water he kept there for that purpose,
though it seemed to have a bitter, un-
pleasant flavor, which he attributed to his
mouth being out of taste.
He fought against the stupor falling
upon him again and again, rousing up,
too, at the Whispering of danger that
seemed breathed around, and at last it
was with growing sense of horror that
he looked anxiously about, peering once
more in the roaring crater of the furnace
all but ready to yomit forth its molten
lava, as we'll as smoke and flame, and
then, with the drugged water effectually
doing it's work, nature could bear no
more, and the stupef1ed man sank breath
ing stertorously but without losing his
power of vision.
He had been in this state about a quar-
ter of an hour when he saw something
come slowly crawling from where the
darkness was BLACKLIST He would have
shouted at it or thrown a lump of coal,
fled from it or struck 1t with the great
iron shovel, but he sat helpless as though
in a dream, while the figure came slowly
crawling to him and then passed out Of
sight behind his screen.
All at once the figure came back, swift
ly rose to it's feet, and then the watcher
recognized his adversary of the struggle.
But now the horror increased, for the man
seized Hardesty by the collar and dragged
him down upon the floor and then slowly
and laboriously toward the open circular
hole where the furnace was fed with fuel.
iv,r~ nv,1
with a helpless shudder Hardesty felt him
self drawn nearer and nearer to the mouth
and knew that the fiend who held him
was about to hurl him in.
Course youp' muttered the wretch,
dashiug the head of his prey upon the
bricks as he lay where the fire burned his
face and made his hair crackle. Course
your he cried, with a fearful oath.
Course you'll You've struck your last
blowl''
But the villain was wrong, for as be
uttered the words and stopped down to
clutch Hardesty by the arms and drag him
forward the bleeding man seemed to leap
into life as if electrified, and rose to his
feet; there was a momentary struggle, an
awful, despairing shrek, the sound of a
fall, succeeded by horrible, cracking
noise, and Samuel Hardesty kneeled alone
upon the brink of the furnace, trembling
and horror stricken, with his hands over
his face, trying to think it dream. The
next moment, though, he was upon his
feet, running toward the engine house,
shouting for aid-aid for the man whose
death must have been instantaneous. But
soon four or five men were gathered round
the furnace hole, armed with great iron
rakes and a boathook from barge, and
then, plunging them into the roaring
flames, they endeavored to drag forth the
body of the persisted man.
But at last, at the seventh trial, the
with he, hoathccI- Il