Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-16

ton proved the correctness of my surmise
the whole side OF this part of the cave wa.
solid wall of shining black coal
IhatH be worth something" / remark
ed, II the railroad goes through here"
I'll bet it will replied Tommy, but i
proves tnat we are away out of our reck
oning: there was no coal the way VIZ
come"
That was true, and. as our stock OF
lsht wood was getting alarmingly low
we pushed on with heavy hearts. Half ar
hour later. after having tramped YEARLY
over miles, as 1t seemed, of the uneven
floor of the cave, humping and bruising
ourselves severely, we lit our last two
sticks.
complained, and as 1 was, too, we sa,
down and ate our lunch. extingushing the
torch for economy's sake Our mouths
were parched and the food nearly checked
the sobs as he munched away in the dark
ness, and l dared not attempt to speak lest
L should blubber outright.
Are We through, Frank?"
was"
Well, then, gimme a match. We may
as well travel on while the light lasts"
81 amt got the matches"
Why, 1 give 'em to YOU"
mo, you didn't"
Yes, did. too
We both searched all Of our pockets
half of match-the head half ct has
never been agreed between US from that
day to this who lost the matches Much
depended on that half match. Though
there was no perceptive breath Of air we
held our caps close together for shelter
while he struck 1t. The blue sulphurous
lame sputtered and sized, the wood ig-
nited and we applied it to the torch. We
mad watched 1t in GREATNESS 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
and out it went
For moment we sat in perfect silence.
Our loss stunned us. Then, Simultaneous
~ we burst into tears. 1t was impossible
TO any longer keep up semblance of
bravery. We cried ourselves out after
awhile. and then Tommy asked:
DO you ever expect to get out of here,
we can; we've got no light now and when
we had we didn't make any Roadway.
don't know of but one thing more to do"
What's that?
FRANKIE"
Il dunno. Tommy, amt never said any,
thing only my regular now I lay me- but
We got to try"
AN right, go ahead, and if your prayer
don't help, I'll 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 l finished we
both said amen" AS we were completely
tired out, we did not arise at once but con-
tinued kneeling. resting our heads on the
cool block
believe I was doing off to sleep when
Frank?"
Il seem to hear kind Of a murmur"
replied. but I thought perhaps it was
buzzing in my head"
No. hear it. 1t seems to come from
pointed in the direction where I. too.
thought it came from.
Alter specializing a while as to what
could be the cause we decided to investi-
gate We took hold of hands, and. / feel.
Ing carefully ahead with my arrow. like a
bind man, We walked slowly along. We
stopped every little while to listen for tho
direction, and found that we had inyaria-
ply commenced to head away to the left
We also discovered to our great satisfac
tlon tnat the sound was steadily fncraaS
ing In volume. 1t wasn't long before 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 tba sous,
continuously without stopping to listen
remarked that this might help us out as
running water would be likely to have ON
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 walk in the
walking with great slowness, and feeling
the ground very carefully before each step
with my arrow.
We must have passed a projecting cor