The herald., 1898-01-16

fsh with no trouble ~ eli. nud a.
not stick at saying that II tnnted tn
j best Of anything ever ate. barxtnl
only that which the Capta1n brough
me after my foolish faAnk; though w
had no salt. and only shazpened stick
| for knives and forks.
When we had done. that h w1seq
there were no more fish left, though
! was still hungry, the Captain put hds
| hand in his pocket and pulled out MI
pipe and clapped 1t In his mouth, hold
ing 1t there i'm q weak kind OF way
Then he smiled, not a cheerful smile
but more in the way of sickly smile
and said.
| II guess you don't know, Harry
where could harpoon a pipe OF tobac
COZ"
"No, DON'T" I answered. unless we
could come up with the London gane
while they were asleep and help our
selves to some"
The Captain looked up brighter
"why," ne said. "I'd almost try 1t II
had the chance. I've been two days
| without 1T now. and I've missed II
about as much as have vfctuals. And
now I've had a meal, and good meal
1t was, too. miss it more than ever
He put his pipe back into his pocket
kind of sheepishly, Thought, and fell
to pacing the floor by the fire. When
he sat down he took the pipe out again
and gazed at 1t awhile and said: 1T
you never get into the habit you don't
want 1t, but tf you do you've got to
have 1t. But learned at sea, and what
can you do on watch at might except
smoker"
We were soon sleepy. and knowing II
must be far into the night stretched
out by the fire and had the best sleep,
it seemed, since we had come into the
cave, as our hunger went nearer to be-
ing satisfied than at any time before,
and the fire warmed us up, and a cave
is, as have said. somewhat too cold
for comfortable sleeping without a
blanket. Our fire brought out a good
many bats, however and the horrid
things would come flirting about on
their web-footed wings. They tell us
we should hate no living thing. but ]
say plainly that hate bat.
In the morning, or ait least when we
woke up, since we knew no more than
anything If it was morning or evening,
VIC hASQ thC iiC cli0 tiiSiA NShs " - 1874
River. as We called 1t, for more fish.
We stuck to it this time (the Cap
tain having made a better harpoon) till
we had got dozen fish, half of them
cats, the oil of which we wanted for
torch-sticks. We went back and had a
meal fit for king-indeed, think l
ate one fit and sufficient for two or
three kings. Thus 1t was we prepared
our torch-sticks: Laying a bundle Of
them in a hollow of the rocks we cut
up the catfish and put them on top.
On this we then rolled red-hot stones,
and the oil frying out pretty we'll soon
soaked into the sticks, though there
was good deal of a flavor of scOrched
fish round about We named the place
Fish Camp, which was natural enough.
Now if anybody ever reads this. and
it chances he gets so far as this. he
Will thank me that l do not tire him
with the account of our life for the
next three or four days. / say three
or four days, but of course it may have
been more or less; only know that we
slept three times, and ate about
twenty. though this needn't to signify,
as if I could have had my way we
But we longed for some salt for our
fish; and some beefsteak or potatoes. or
bread-and-butter would not have gone
bad, especially after the fifteenth or
twentieth meal of plain fish. Though,
to be sure, we fried some Of the fish
on rock and broiled others over the
Goals on a sharp stalactite, and thus
made some variety.
But not much happened these days,
however many of them there were. We
hunted constantly, when not sleeping or
eating fish. for a way out, but had no
sort Of reward. We were very cautious
at first, but soon became convinced
that there were none of the outlaws
in that part of the cave. The fire
which we had at first seen at the dome
was not kept up. The rope where
had come down was drawn up and we
never saw anything more of 1t. We
wanted very much to explore this part
between the pit where we looked down
first at the fire and the place where
we pried away the stone with the gun,
which we called the Trap Door, and
the other Fire Pit. We suspected the
gang might be there, nevertheless we
1t was our only hope of finding a way
out. We decided there must be some
way to get up besides a rope, since
from the fire we saw they had been
down; for If there was no such way,
and they had a rope before, why did
they take ours?
We had found way which seemed to
lead up the second day, but 1T was so
small that l had become stuck in 1t
and the Captain had to pull me out by
the legs. But we decided to try it
again. So we covered up the fire care
fully and, taking plenty of torch-sticks,
started. Never had we had such
crawling, and wriggling, and crookng,
and turning as we experienced in this
place, which we called the Pocket
Gopher Hole. But we got through at
last, and were surprised to find our
selves in the first part and beyond the
Trap Door. So we went on to Sink
Hole Dome, but found nothing new.
AS for the beating sound at the Bed
room, We could not hear it at all.
We went back through the Trap
Door, noticing our gum beside the hole;
but as we had only shot for it, and
was. We went on toward Fire Pit, go
ing very cautiously and looking out for
any sign of the robbers. We got to
Rope Pit, but found the rope gone. We
turned to go back and do the exploring
we had planned when very foolishly
proposed going into the room lust back