The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-06

We're floating" upon the earth's sur
face, and the labor of undermining
would, 1t 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 distance; they're going to smoke
us to death; that's the game
Looks like trying it," painted the lit
tie sailor, from his work
That's dried camePs dung they're
burning. 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. I say skipper,
can't you come to some agreement with
Rad over those blessed rifles? It's a
beastly death to die, this!'
You aren't deadly long chalk
yet. More'n |. 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 sound of distant cough
ing. and then the misty question,
What are you working at?"
'Taking-eXercise! Kettle gasped,
and after that, communication between
the two was limited to incessant STAG
cato coughs.
More and more acrid grew the air as
the burning cancels dung saturated it
further and further with smoke, and
more and more frenZied grew Kettles
efforts. He felt that the hacking coughs
were gnawing away his strength, and
just now the utmost output OF his
thews was needed. He had given up
his original idea of mining a passage
way under the wall. Indeed, this would
have been labor of weeks with the
poor broken crock, which was his only
tool, for the weight of the building
above had turned the earth to some
thing very near akin to the hardness
of stone. But he had managed to
scrape out space underneath one
brick, and found that it was loosened,
ana, with trouble, could be diSlodged;
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, it was tediously difficult work
in practice. The bricks jammed even
when they were undermined, and the
wall was fou: bricks thick to its fur
Their side Moreover, every alternate
course was crossDinned, and the work
man was rapidly becoming as9hyxiat-
ed by the terrible reek which came bill
lowing in from the chamber beyond.
Still, with aching chest and bleeding
fingers and smarting eyes, Kettle
worked doggedly on, and at last got a
hole made completely through. What
lay in the blackness beyond he did not
know: either Rad el Moussa or the fire
man might be waiting to give him a
coup de grace the moment his head APP
peared. but he was ready TO ACCEPT
every risk. He felt that if ne stayed in
the reek of that burning camel's dung
any longer he would be strangled.
The hole in the brickwork was
scarcely bigger than a fox earth, but
he was a slightly-built man, and with
hard struggle he managed to press
his way through. No one opposed him.
He found and scraped his only remain
ing match. and saw that he was in an
other bottleshaped chamber similar to
the one he had left, but in this there
was a doorway. There was punsent
smoke reek here also, and though its
sleLderness came to him as a blessed
relief after what he had been endur-
irg. he lusted desperately for a taste
of the pure air outside.
The door gave to his touch and he
found a stair. He ran up this and
stepped out into the corridor, where
Rad had lured him to capture, and
then, walking cautiously to the wall.
so as not to step into any more BOBBY
traps, he came to the place where he
calculated (from their conversation
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
traO.
There was no sound from below.
"G1eat heavens" he thought, twas the
mate dead?" He hailed sharply, and
a husky voice answered. Seeing moth
ing else at hand that would serve, he
lowered an end of the carpet, keeping
grip on the other, and presently
Murray got q hold and clambered up
beside him. 4,
In a dozen whispered words Kettle