Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1899-04-06
CHATTER Nv.
THE HAND OF RARETTE.

! lay for a time where | had been
flung. overwhelmed with the DISASTER.
Then a frenzy came ON me. and. but
for the gag in my month. could have
screamed ont curses on my folly i'm al
lowing myself Ia he trapped like "A Wild
cat. Now that think of il, in the mad
ness of those moments, | did not pray
tn the God who had so often and so re-
peatcdly helped me; yet in His mercy
and goodness ! was freed from nv
straits. as will be shown hereafter.
In the meantime | was SO securely
bound that il was all hut impossible 10
move. and the bandage over my eyes
prevented me from seeing anything. l
writhed and twisted like a serpent on
the wet flags, where lay, and in the
violence Of my struggles gradually
moved the bandage, 30 that my eyes
were at last set free, and then, ex-
hausted 10y my efforts and half chokci
by the gag, | became still once more
and looked around me. For all could
see | might have been as hefore--I was
in blank, absolute darkness. Into the
ing, though ! could hear my own la
bored breathing and the melancholy
drip, drip" of water as 10 oozed from
above me and fell in sulien drops on
the slime below.
As ! strained into the velvet black Of
the darkness, it came To me, some
fiend must have whispered it, that J
IL. 4
! TO work at the thought, and remained
in kind of torpor, trying in a weak
| manner TO mentally count the drops %
water by the duh splashing sound they
made in falling. Ages seemed To pasn
as | lay there, and the first sense Of
Of Claude, whom | had lost, and the
quick agony of this made my other
sufferings seem as nothing. There is a
| misery that words, at least such words
as | am master of, cannot picture and
l will therefore say no more of this.
A little thing, however, now nap
pened, and but for this | might have
,, lain where was until died. So entirely
impressed was | with the idea that +
was sightless. In utter WEAKNESS {
| turned my head 10 one side, and saw
two small beads of fire twinkling about
a yard or SO from me. They were m
small as the far-away stars, and theY
cared at me fxedly. This is some de-
ception OF the mind" thought to MT
| self, when suddenly another pair az
fiery eyes appeared; then there was y
slight shufiling, and all was still. Bat
il was the saving of me. Sight and
! hearing could not both deceive. kncw
what they were, and | knew. too, that
| was not blind. From that moment
began to regain possession of my foo
. uities and to think of means of escape.
| In my vest pocket was a small clasp
knife. IL could but get at that con,d
free myself from my bonds. That 81
any rate had to be the frs, step. be-
gan TO slowly move my arms up and
down with a view TO loosening the
cords that bound me: but after soma
time spent in this exercise, realized the
fact that the ropes might cut through
me, but that they would not loosen.
Then il struck me. In my eagerness to
be free, that | might get at the knota
with my teeth; and by mighty effort l
raised myself to sitting posture, only
to remember that | was gagged, and
that IL was Of no avail to think of this
plan. There are those who will smile
perhaps il their eyes meet this, and
put me down In their estimation for q
fool for my forgetfulness. That may
or may not be; but have written down
exactly what happened.
lTo BE CONTINUED