The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-17

pfODaDiN grew there. A IOfJneI lnNestlSt-
ton proved the correctness of my surmse;
the whole side of this part of the cave
was a solid wal of shining black coal
"ThatH be worth. something" I re-
marked. IF the railroad goes through
here"
I'm bet it will" replied Tommy, "but
1t proves that we are away out of our
reckoning; there was no coal the way we
come"
That was true, and. as our stock of
light wood was getting alarmingly low,
we pushed on with heavy hearts. Half
an hour later, after having tramped wea-
rily over miles, as it seemed, of the I'M
even floor of the cave humping and bruis-
ing ourselves severely, We lit our last
two sticks.
I'm most starved to death" Tommy
complained, and as 1 was, too, we sat
down and ate our lunch, eXtinguishing
the torch for economy's sake. our mouths
were parched and the food nearly choked
u.s. 1 could hear poor Tommy choke back
the sobs as he munched away in the dark
ness, and l dared not attempt to speak
lest should bubber outright.
Are We through. Frank"
Yes. 1 wasn't as hungry as I thought
was"
"Well, then, gimme a match. We may
as well travel on while the light lasts"
Il amt got the matches"
who has?"
why, l give EN- to you.
mo, you didn't"
Yes, l did, too"
We both searched all of our pockets
with the result that Tommy found one
half of a match-the head half. cit has
never been agreed between US from that
day to this who lost the matches.} Much
depended on that half a match. Though
there was no perceptive breath of air. We
held our caps close together for shelter
while he struck it. The blue sulphurous
flame sputtered and sized, the wood ig-
nited. and we applied it TO the torch. We
had watched it in breathless silence. As
the fat pitch pine blazed up there came
a whirring, rushing sound Look out
Tom" l cried, but too late. The great
cave bat lured by the light and rendered
bold by our silence swept the torch from
his hand and out il went.
For a moment we sat in perfect 81
lence. Our loss stunned us. Then, stimuli
taneously we burst into tears. 1t was i'm
possible to any longer keep up a sem
blance of bravery. We cried ourselves
out, after awhile, and then Tommy ask
ed:
DO you ever expect to get out of here
Frank?"
Il don't know, Tommy, I don't see how
we can; we've got no light, now, and
when we had, we didn't make any head
way. don't know of but one thing more
TO do"
What's that?"
eve might pray to God to help us"
yes l thought o that; can you pray
Frank?"
Il dunno. Tommy, I amt never said
anything only my reg lar now / lay me-
| but we got to try"
We kneeled down by the great block of
| coal, and l prayed as well as l could. ask
ing our heavenly father TO deliver us
| from that horrible place. When I finished
| both said sfaO1aT1 - e VIZ
| pletely tired out. we did not arise at once
| but continued kneeling, resting our heads
on the cool block.
believe was doing off to sleep when
| Tommy asked: Don't you hear some
| thing, Frank?'
Il seem to hear a kind of a murmur,"
| I replied but l thought perhaps it was
| buzzing in my head"
mo, l hear ii. 1t seems to come from
| over there" and he took my hand and
| pointed in the direction where, 1 too
| thought it came from.
After specializing while, as to what
could be the cause we decided to nves-
+ tigate We took hold of hands, and, 1
| feeling carefully ahead with my arrow
| like a blind man, we walked slowly along
| We stopped every little while to listen for
the direction, and found that we had in
| variably commenced to head away to the
| left We also discovered to our great
| increasing in volume. 1t wasn't long be-
| fore we were able to identify the sound, as
| that of running water, which was very
welcome to us two thirsty boys.
We were now able to follow the sound
| continuously without stopping to listen.
remarked that this might help US out, as
running water would be likely to have an
exit. Tommy advised that we proceed
| more cautiously than ever. The stream,
he said might be the outlet of some deep
and quiet pool into which we might wax
| in the darkness. So we renewed our pre-
cautions. walking with great slowness. and
l feeling the ground very carefully before
each step with my arrow
We must have passed a projecting cor
ner for we exclaimed, both together,
whats that?" and each, instinctively,
tried to hide behind the other. THAT
was a speck of visible dimness in the
| universal black. 1t appeared in the d.
recton from which the sound came. We
| stood for a moment regarding it in fear.
We thought of the flaming eyes Of wild
! beasts, of jack o lanterns and the ghosts
OF dead Indians.
Tommy, as usual, was the first to ex-
press a rational idea. 81 believe it's day
| light" he asserted, hopefully.
81 hope to the Lord it is" 1 replied, de-
voutly.
Again we advanced. The noise assum-
| ed the dimensions of quite a respectable
| roar and the light increased so rapidly
| that there was no doubt about its being
| daylight Things in our immediate neigh
| borhood became dtmly visible, until at
! last, with joyous shouts, we broke into a
run. We came TO the end of another tun-
| mel, about fifty feet long, barely high
| enough to stand upright in, but wide
enough for a cart. 1t sloped gradually
downward as it went out and was c.osed
at the outer end by curtain of falling
water. through which the welcome day
| light penetrated in rapt radiance, to the
| interior.
With a wild hurrah we climbed up to
! the entrance and rushed 90 the water 1t
! fell so close to the rock that we caught
| il in our hands and drank heartily. We
| found that we had accumulated wonder
| full coat of dirt. Our hands, clothes and
| faces were covered with dust, probably
from the Indian burial place. But how
| our spirits rose and our hearts bounded
| at our providential escape from most
! horrible fate.