Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-06-06


a steam navy. And so he moved on
a yard or SO, pushed open house door
with his elbow and carried me inside
In four minutes I found myself in a
little coal cellar and alone.
IT fumbled in my pockets worse
luck had left my big c1aspknife at
the works. I had no more lethal in
struments on me than a paltry thing
for sharpening pencils, with blade
barely two inches long. Coal cellars
generally possess hammer or at
least a shovel Either of these would
form a dangerous weapon in the hands
of desperate man. So I started
cropping.
Whether that cellar contained any
such instrument I don't know. l
wasn't given time to search it. No
sooner had begun to move about than
the giant who had tackled me turned
up again, and in spite of my puny
struggle fastened thick scarf tightly
over my eyes. Then clapping an arm
round my middle he carried me up the
stone stairs, and then up another
flight, and then up a passage or two.
At last he set me down, and pinning
my movements with one restraining
arm, freed my eyes with his other
hand. My first impulse was to turn
and look at him. but that he prevent
ed by holding my head cocoanut fash
ion, so that could only see straight
before me.
II was in a room meanly furnished
and lighted by a couple of candles
stuck in beer bottles. Shabby curtains
were drawn before the window, and
from their occasional movements I
guessed that somebody was behind
them.
In the middle of the room was a
strong frame work of rough unplaned
deal, some twelve feet long by three
feet, six inches in breadth. At one
end were a couple of staples, at the
other rude winch which could be
worked with handspikes.
"'What do you think this is?" asked
some one from behind the curtains.
ct replied that I thought it was a
crude machine for experimental wire
drawing.
eyes, it would do for wiredraw-
ing squeaked the voice, or man-draw-
ing, at a pinch. We could lengthen
your few inches there most admirably.
cit was not ready money they want
ed, these unknown, unseen blackmail-
ers. 1t was something of far more
worth, far greater value to me, some
thing that had given years to attain;
myself; indeed, they demanded no less
a thing than my great invention. I
was to reveal the secret; they through
their agents, would sell it to the prop
err men, who would Professionally pro-
tect it; and after the month had lapsed
which these arrangements would take,
I should be released.
s'But would not listen. I chung to
that invention as I chung to life.
would not give them a hint of it. And
we clustered savagely on both sides.
"Their patience waned, and at last
gave out My captor, from behind,
slipped the scarf over my eyes once
more, shoes creaked across from the
window, and two more pairs OF hands
were laid upon me. The brlltes worked
in silence, but they did their job effec-
lively. They roped my ankles to the
staples at the foot of the framework,
and linked my wrists to the barrel OF
the winch, which was then wound up
till I was stretched like collectors
beetle on the bare floor.
Change your mind?" my persecu-
tor asked laconically.
"'Not if you murder me for sticking
to it,
eft is wonderful how much tension
the human frame will bear without
becoming dismembered. Of course the
pain I had to endure was something
awful, and it increased every moment.
The brutes had couple of handspikes,
and I heard them fitting these in one
after another as the slots kept com
ing uppermost, and I heard their in
fernal engine creaking in every joint
with the stress. But not one human
sound was uttered on either side.
After the first few moments of that
tearing pain, kept dinning in upon
myself Crying out can make it no
more endurab1e,' until became mono
maniac ON the point. Had 1 kept my
wits I must have succumbered to the
torture, but, as it was, not a syllable
passed my lips.
"They eased off the pressure once
with sudden jerk-one of the hand
spikes had slipped-and I fell with a
bump ON the floor. Then it was that
serse of hearing was temporarily TAX
en- from me. My ears buzzed and we're
filled with something warm, and some
thing which flowed out through my
mouth. I guessed rightly that it was
blood. But at that moment had no
resentment against the fiends who had
caused it to flow"
'And so the fellows were disturbed"
I hazarded. "I hope they got penal
servitude?"
'No; nobody came to interrupt |
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