The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-05

1oot OF the wall with skill ana dstefmlna-
ton. W
But if Kettle was prompt his captors
were by no means dilatory Between Ket-
ties prison and the mates was another
or those bottle-shaped oubllettes and in
that there was presently a hustle of move
ment There came the noises of some Que
lighting a fire, and coughing as he fan
ned smoldering embers into a glow with
his breath, and then more coughing and
some curses as the fire-lghter took his
departure. The door above clapped down
into place. and then there was che sound
of some one dragging over that and over
the doors of the other two prisons what
seemed to be carpets, or heavy rugs.
There was something mysterious in this
maneuver at first, but the secret of 1t was
not Kept for long. An acrid smell stole
out into the air, which .thickened every
minute in intensity. Kettle seemed dimly
to recognize it, but could not put a name
to it definitely. Besides he was working
with all his might at scraplng away the
earth from the foot of the wall and had
little leisure to5think of other things. The
heat was sitting, and the sweat dripped
from him, but he toi.ed on with a saw
age slee at his success. The foundations
had not been dug out; they were floating
upon the earth surface, and the labor of
Undermining would, it appeared, be small.
But Murray, in the other prison, had
smelled the reek before. and was able to
put name to it promptly. by Jove,
captain" he shouted Justify, from the dis
lance, they're going to smoke us to death;
that's the game"
Looks like trying it, painted the little
sailor from his work.
That's dried cameFs dung they're burn
ing. There's no wood in Arabia here, and
that's their only fuel. When the smoke
gets into your lungs it just tears you all
TO bits | say, skipper, can't you come to
some agreement with Rad over those bles-
sed rifles? lisa beastly death 10 die, this"
You aren't DEADLY a long chalk-yet.
More'n l. I'd hate TO be-smoke-dried like
ham-as bad as any jew, But L don't
start into scott the cargo-on my own
ship-at any bally price"
There was a sound of distant coughing
and then the misty question, what are
you working at?
'Taking-eXercisew Kettle gasped, and
after that communication between the two
was limited TO incessant staccato coughs.
More and more acrld grew the air as the
burning camels dung saturated it further
ana further with smoke, and more and
more ffenzied grew Kettles efforts He felt
that the hacking coughs just were gnawing
away his strength, and just now the Mt
most output of his thews was needed He
| had given up his original idea of mining a
! pdssageway under the wall. Indeed this
would have been labor of weeks with the
| poor broken crock which was his onlv
tool, for the weight of the building above
! had turned the earth TO something very
near akin to the hardness of stone. But he
| had managed to scrape out a space under
meath one brick and found that it was loos-
ened and, with trouble, could be dislodg-
ed; and so he was burrowing away the
| earth from beneath others TO drop more
bricks down from their places, and so
make a gangway through the solid wall
| itself
But simple though this may be in theory
1t was tediously difficult work in practice:
The bricks damned even when they We're
! undermined, and the wall was four bricks
thick to its further side. Moreover, every
| alternate course was crossplnned, and the
workman was rapidly becoming asphyxiat-
ed by the terrible reek which came blow
| ing in from the chamber beyond
Still, with aching chest, and bleeding
fingers and smartlng eyes, Kettle worked
| doggecly on, and at last got hole made
completely through. What lay in the
! blackness beyond he did not know; either
Rad el Moussa or the fireman might be
waiting TO give him coup de grace the
moment his head appeared, but he was
! ready to accept every risk. He felt that
! If he stayed in the reek of that burning
camels dung any longer he would be
sirangled.
The hole in the brckwork was scarcely
| bigger than a fox earth, but he was a
slightly built man and with a hard strug-
| gle he managed to press his way through.
No one opposed him. He found and scrap
ed his only remaining match, and saw that
| he was in another bottle-shaped chamber
! similar to the one he had left, but in this
| there was a doorway. There was pungent
smoke reek here also, and though its slen-
| derness came to him as a blessed relief
after what he had been enduring, he lust
ed desperately for a taste of the pure air
| outside
The door gave to his touch, and he
| found stair. He ran up this and stepped
out into the corridor where Rad had lured
| him to capture, and then, walking eau
| tously by the wall so as not to step into
| any more BOBBY traps, he came to the
| place where he calculated (from the con-
/ versation) Murray would be Jailed. A
large, thick carpet had been spread over
| the door so as TO prevent any egress of
| the singing smoke or any ingress of air
and this he pulled away and lifted the
| tra2
There was no sound from below.
| Great heavens!' he thought twas the
| mate dead?" He hailed sharply, and a
| husky voice answered. Seeing nothing else
| at hand that would serve, he lowered an
end of the carpet, keeping grip on the
other, and presently Murray got hold and
| clambered up beside him.
| In dozen whispered words Kettle told
his plans, and they were on the point Of
starting off to carry them out, when the
| s.op-slop of slippers made itself heard adj
vancing down the corridors. Promptly the
pair of them sank into the shadows, and
presently the ex-flreman came up whist
| ling cheerfully an air from some English
| music hall He did not see them till they
were almost within handgrips, and then
the tune froze upon his lips In manner
| that was iudicrous.
But neither Kettle nor his mate had any
| eye for the humors of the situation just
! then. Murray plucked the mans legs ar
tistically from beneath him, and Kettle
| gripped his hands and throat. He thrust
MALARIA, GRIPPE