The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1898-04-30
could be his last act. In all nv

diart Hau 1OUAu Lille 10 IeplGCe ftue
6Is lin the coin and put the whole
thing into my pocket. I now had rea-
son ito curse this careless1ess, for 7
did lot know how to open she piece
oos;h. 7 knew I lad stumbled on it
hy rtressing spring near the edge,
h., Eust where could not tell TAX
in up my pencil 7 went carefully
oboSt the rim. I must have missed it
+bo frst and second times round, but
tho third time on striking, as I then
nota, exactly over the letter o. the
To:Fs few open again. Ten precious
n,;ni1tes had been lost; and I set to
work with desperate energy. The
f,r+her I cut into the bsr the slower
tha M work went, and I also had
~ conduct my operations with
ona eye on the Mexican, He did not
wove, but lay there watching ne out
- his large, dark eyes, wonderingly:
Ws1ly two hours passed thus when
+he faint twittering of e bird warned
mo ,of approaching day. I had not
a.; ;5hed the first bar. 7 seemed to be
W. ling no progress at all now. Once
+Le Il little file had slipped from Smy
6n ssrs and fallen to the floor, where I
LaGlbeeu obliged to grope for it, and
tbs lconstant fear lest it should slip
ora4n and fall outside made me doubly
conlous and slow. AS the first streaks
of I'D tinged the eastern sky the roll
~ The drum in the guard room beneath
+oIGlme that the sentries were about
~ be changed. Exerting all my
trangth I wrenehed the bar free at
ths bottom and bent it inward and
IN bard like hook. The aperture
tfn$ made was small, but'still might
en- ukeze through. The remembrance
houl, as a boy, T used to crawl into
orr barn at home through a small
u;nS low from which q pane Of glass
LodFbeen knocked, came to my mind
enc Puragingly. Snatching up che
nisAol I pushed the table under the
win dow, and, jumping upon it, began,
ia first, to work myself through the
boll. Twas about the same size all she
yup in those days"-here the major
loot led rather regretfully at the pres
ent generous proportions Of his waist
no -ssbut when I had gotten half.
woy through T stuck fast. Just ct
tbis moment I heard voices at the
doo1 and a key CRATE in the lock.
Th1 had some difficulty in unlocking
It for had left the key in the lock on
1nvF side. Meanwhile I struggled
vail lantly, but the more wriggled the
+;glkter Z seemed to get wedged in the
w;n1dow, and the blood surged up into
mV head with splitting violence.
TSoE Re was, caught in my own trap,
wayHng my legs about and striking
+naA against the wall OIL the outside.
s4The key on my side Of the door
fol, Ito the floor, and the key on the
9TH ser side turned in the lock. I
ca1l ed outas menacingly as my lack of
ire eth would permit: THE first who
entff will be shot dead Here I
oovE 9 a tremendous squirm. Z have
ga ga powered the sentry (wriggle), and
bsv his pistol. The click Of my
wea BON carried conviction with it, for
tbe men in the corridor paused. By
q en- Hperhuman effort I drew myself a
iii toward the inside Of the room,
and& getting one arnseutside, managed
lzSss' tssia RI 5Rs fs' 5sF, 81
t, having cstsss on the ragged
np of IRON, prevented me for a
pent from dropping to the
yae beneath. A sentry on the
prison wall spied me a. this
jun4ture and fred his musket. It was
his Hast shot, for as his ball struck the
MOI 3tar from the wall near me raised
my iplstol and picked him off his perch.
L le1 go my hold. There was soft
burf of ripping flannel, and fell to
the }ground. / was upon my feet and
oyet the wall like cat As leaped
a 7oAley of shot followed me, and the
soldiers poured out Of the jail in pur-
suitj There were some horses tied in
'front.' of the postofice opposite, and
breay king the tether Of one of them I
wast en- his back and away up the street
in a3dash. It was only an eighth Of
nilel long. You know how these little
MEXICAN towns are built. Pandemon-
iumE Eeigned there for about ten sec
ond4, and then T was of towards the
mountains. A dozen men were after
me ~ full chase, but they never came
within shooting distance again. You
see, II knew the country even better
than they, having been scouting in it
for aFeeks. I made my way back to our
line4 with all possible dispatch, avoid
ing hny encounter, with the natives.
When T finally reached the Ameri-
con army T found that Scott had given
up a ll idea Of seeing me again, and was.
preparing to press forward to the at,
tack!
ON the 18th of August our forces:
we're; shelling the City of Mexico from
the very town of N1olino del Rey, and
on tn p 18th we took the city itself by
assault.
II! wanted to have hand at whip
ping Santa Anna, so took part in the
charge and received a wound in the
leg which resulted in this" The
majoF stuck out his left leg from un-
der the table. Cork, sir!
"Hhat, gentlemen, is how come to
know how to open this remarkable
coini"
Then drawing fat wallet from his
insid|e vest pocket he fshed out from
its re- Scesses something folded in what
had Z nee been white paper, now dark
with kge. Unwrapping-it he disclosed
q tiaH Glo NTH dalicata sam.&e eth