The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-07-20

bers into A glow with his breath, and
then more coughing and some curses as
the fire lighter took his departure. The
door above clapped down into place,
and then there was the 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 ,:le secret of
it 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 definite
ly. Besides he was working with all
his might at scraping away the earth
I from the foot of the wall and had little
leisure to think of other things. The
heat was sitting, and the sweat drip
! ped from him, but he toiled on with a
savage glee at his success. The foun
dations had not been dug out; they
We're 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 a 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"
"Loolls like trying it, painted the lit
tie sailor, from his work.
That's dried camel's 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. l 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 a long chalk
vet. More'n l. I'd hate to be-smoke
dried like ham-but / don't start in
to scott the carso-on my own ship-at
any bally price,
There was a 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 cameIs dung saturated it
further and further with smoke, and
more and more frenzied grew Kettles
efforts. He felt that the hacking coughs
We're gnawing away his strength, and
just now the utmost output of his
thews was needed He had given UP
L; II nf ,i,i,, ap,
way under the wall. Indeed this would
have been a 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
f stone. But he had managed to scrape
, out q space underneath one brick anC
; found that it was loosened and, Will
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 {
. gangway through the solid wall itself.
But, simple though this may be il
o theory. it was tediously difficult worl
n in practice. The bricks jammed ever
t when they We're undermined, and tn,
a wall was four bricks thick to it's far
n Their side. Moreover, every alternate
+ course was crosspinned, and the work
e man was rapidly becoming asphyxiat
, ed by the terrible reell which came bill
3 lowing in from the chamber beyond.
= Still, with aching chest and bleeding
fingers and smarting eyes Kettle work
a ed doggedly on and at last got hole
made completely through. What lay
in the blacllness beyond he did MOI
know. Either Rad ell N1oussa or the
a fireman might be waiting to give him 6
coup de grace the moment his head ap
peared. But he was ready to accept
every risk. He felt that if he staid in
the reek of that burning camers dung
, any longer he would be strangled.
The hole in the brickwork was moi
large, but he was a slightly built man
and with a hard struggle he managed
to press his way through. No one op