Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1899-08-10

l.
started one of the guides took more
than ordinary trouble in poining out
and explaining different things to me,
and l mentally determined to double
his fee for his attention, but if had
known his object l would in all prob
ability have shot him on the spot
Well, at last we had seen all we
wished and prepared to ascend.
The rest of the party were already
some distance up, and l was preparing
to follow, when my guide said:
''Sir, you have taken nothing as a
memento of your visit to our noun
tain.''
He was right.
So walked back toward the center
of the basin to procure something to
carry away which would in after years
remind me of my visit.
Have you any copper coins with
you?' he asked.
l felt in my pockets.
Yes, l had one. just one, an old,
well-worn United States coin. This
handed to him. He waited another
discharge of scoria, and when it fell
he ran up and dropped the cent into
a small piece of the hot compound.
We had now to wait until it cooled,
and when it did, 1 picked it up and
placed it in my pocket.
The same instant the guide gave a
wild yell and came rushing toward
me, his face distorted, his mouth open
and his eyes flaming, and of that dis
agreeable grenish color.
l stood looking at him, not knowing
the cause of his strange actions.
Was the volcano about to commence
another eruption and crisp us to a Gin
der, or had some freak of nature
changed the volcanic surroundings SO
as to render our exit impossible and
entomb us alive.
These were the thoughts which rush
ed through myI brain.
By this time he had reached my side
and before l knew it he had grasped
me by the throat and bore me down.
Another sacrifice to offer to my
charming Queen he cried, as he COM
menced dragging me toward the steep,
smoking cone.
1t was some time before I recovered
from the surprise which this unexpect-
ed maneuver occasioned.
But at last did and struggled to my
feet
Come" / said, "you have carried
this joke far enough"
''Ha, ha, hav' he laughed, fighting
desperately to force me up to the
cone.
MY pet thinks it is capital joke;
don't you hear them growing for food;
come, it is your flesh, and it alone,
that will appease their hunger"
His fiendish eyes glared into mine,
flakes of foam dropping from his ivid
lips.
[ saw it in an. instant.
L was in the hands of a raying ma
Mac.
To plead or argue would amount to
naught; nothing but strength and
agility could save me from most hOr-
rible death; for it was his intention to
throw me into the mouth of the cone,
there falling into the seething, boiling
ocean of fire and flame beneath, L
should be burnt to a crisp in second
of time.
| struggled desperately, shouting the
while in hope of calling back my
friends to my aid.
But all my shouting was useless
lost in the mighty surroundings and
the ever-shifting clouds of smoke and
mist, rendered their seeing me an i'm
Possibility.
My only hope was to overpower my
assailant.
We were now within few yards
of the base of the cone, and the heat
was almost insufferable.
Clouds of smoke and flame, followed
by huge pieces of blood-red scoria,
were vomited from the black funnel
ike peak
was gradually forced nearer and
nearer.
The pei SEPARATION started from every
pore, and [ became conscious that L
WAS growing weaker, and would soon
have to Succumb; my physical strength
being no match for his-urged on by a
feudish purpose, the product of a dis
eaSed intellect.
The earth WAS quaking beneath our
feet, the air was sitting and impreg-
mated with the fumes of gas.
My face and hands had already COM
menced to blister under the intense
heat.
And while 1 was slowly losing my
strength he appeared to have his
augmented at every step.
l could not fight much longer.
Death. in one of its most horrible
forms, would in few minutes be my
fate.
My sight grew dim; my brain SEEM
ed to be pierced by hot irons; my
limbs refused to move.
'God help me.' I murmured.
The prayer had hardly left my lips