The herald., 1898-01-16
Copyright, 1898. by gacheller syndicate.l

ICopyright, 1898, by Bachelor Syndicate.l
SYNOPSIS.
Henry Clay Fargo. takes place in ,t,t, the
year 1857, in the limestone region or MIN
nesota. Fargo, then, about eighhtesShi: ash EN-
fortune. Reaching Hawks Landing.
Minnesota, he makes his home win up
tain Archway. One day Fargo ana youns
draft; while there the bank is attacked
and robbed of $4,000, and in the sculile
Robert is shot and killed. The roppers
are known to have hidden IN Fron1emac 1e,.a,.
Cave in the valley of the Zumbro Rlver,
but they so barricade themselves in tnat
pursuit is impossible; Captain Archway sa.y
numerous ramifications that, as IN all
limestone caves, extend in all directions.
Fargo agrees to help him; One morning
the two men lower themselves into SINK
hole on the prairie, in the hope that 1t
will lead into the right cave. Their OBJ
iect is to reconnoitre: they will summon
help IL they find any way OF reaching
the robbers. While they are down, a
storm comes up and the descending water
carries their rope and its fastening to
the bottom. They have some provisions,
and for six days they grope around un-
able to escape. Most of this time they
hear queer pounding noise they are un-
able to explain. Finally the Captain tells
Fargo that they may never get out alive.
He regrets deeply having brought the
young man down, and only wishes that
the latter would forgive him for 1t.
PART II.
'Thalt do, Captain" said, and 1
know my voice trembled more than his
hand. Il would not have let you come
alone if you had wanted to- Can you
forgive me for taking Robert where 1
did that day?'
"Oh, that was different. You did not
know there was danger. I ought to
h1Ua known thpra x-ff11
here. But, come, we'll make another
trial. Well not die here like rats in
a hole. There's enough candle to last
five or six hours by keeping the wick
split. We have little strength left,
and there's one place beyond the two
column room where think there may
still be hope. There are three matches
left, you said"
YES"
BE sure you find dry place before
you scratch it," he added as 1 felt about
for the wall. The match went, and he
held the candle and once more we
looked into our thin, pinched faces. 1 |
could see that he appeared much more
bowed and broken than the day be-
fore. For two days we had been fol-
lowing the plan Gt was the Captains |
idea and good one) of keeping the |
wick of the candle split in two. care
fully pushing down and cutting off |
half of 1T with the point of our knives |
as the tallow sank lower. This gave
smaller flame, but ate UP the candle
much slower.
The regular beat of the unknown
noise was palmer than ever, but we
left 1T behind when We got beyond the
rnnO1 whnrp i'm ! :
ourselves along the shortest way to-
ward the two-column room. Several
times we stopped and went down into
holes which we thought might lead
somewhere; but we always found that
we had explored them before. There
seemed to be hundreds of these places
leading down and under which ended
by being too small for us to wrggle J
farther In some places, deep down un-
der the lodges at the side or end of
rooms or passageWayS, we found holes
or long, low openings through which
we could see higher and larger spaces
beyond, but which were too small to
allow us to get through to what might
mean freedom
We got to the two-column room at
last which we so called from two big
4 pyramid of loose rocks and then down '
a steep crack a number of yards wide {
but hardly two feet high. We slid down {
twenty feet, and sat up where it was I
a little higher.
We've been here before, Captain {
It's like all the rest" I said, sorrow {
fully and hopelessly.
'Yes, 1 guess we have, Harry" he
He peered down into the 4,
narrowing crack. "It's larger beyond,
but there's no getting through He I
rested his shoulder heavily on the rim
Of rock which barred our way. AS he
did so it moved. He seized it, exclaim-
ing: "Why, it's loose, Harry" And so
1t was.
We both laid hold of it, and though
you could rock it with one hand we
were not strong enough to move it.