The Washington times., 1901-11-10


his mind was complete blank he could
remember nothing that had happened on
the previous day. lie remembered my COM
ing into the big room and the struggle,
but beyond that ne remembered nothing
Hagn.hcent diamond ring. valued at
4loO. and his gold watch and chain, be-
sldes gold and notes to the value of e2s1,
mad been taken from him / looked round
Tor some means of escape. This seemed
impossible. Whilst l was examining our
prison Sir Richard fell into a deep sleep,
and, knowing I could receive Iittle help
from him, l sat down to think matters
! over by myself. Whether 1t was the
| fumes Of opium or the blow had received
on my head. | fell asleep
| do not know how long I slept. but
! when / awol1e the first thing was con-
scious Of was the throbbing Of machinery.
and as 1 looked upward the spikes seem
ed to be much nearer than when | had
| fallen asleep. OF course. / argued with
myself, such thing was impossible. it
! was my fancy, and yet the spikes GER
tainly appeared to be quite 4 foot nearer.
| went to arouse Sir Richard to point out
TINS curious phenomenon to him when,
| IKE Hasn of lightning, the awful truth
flashed across my mind The floor of the
room was slowly rising toward the spiked
ceilingi
At the rate NJ =shich I judged It to he
moving reehUned it would take about
flye hours and a half before we should bs
| impaled upon the murderous spikes.
| Presently my mind began to weave a
| strange plan. The ceiling was composed
| of bricks. and could 1 by means of nv
| pocketkrife remove the mortar. thus
loosening brick-then, when one was re-
| moved, to remove a dozen or a score
would be comparatively easy; but how
could l reach the ceiling? Was Sir Rich
ard strong enough to bear my weight
upon his shoulders? / awoke him.
L explained the situation to him, also
my plan. His sleep had done him good
and he now fully realized the peril we
were in. we must remove sufficient
bricks and spikes to make cavity in the
ceiling to contain US both.'' said, and I
want you to stand still and let me work
from off your shoulders" He took me on
his shoulders and 1 commenced working
on the centre brick. For ten minutes l
hacked away at the mortar, and then I
took Sir Richards place and he worked
from my shoulders. and after half
hours work we had removed the first
brick How 1 blessed the quality OF a
Birmingham m-made claspknife 1 should
NAi4ilh II WAS an nOuT ana q naI DetOT6
We had removed the first layer and we
were two feet nearer the spikes. which
were as tight as ever in the ceiIiiIg When
had removed the first brick of the second
layer out came two of the spikes Now,
just at this moment. when l felt that sue
cess was not absolutely impossible, a most
deplorabIe oversight forced itself upon me.
The very bricks we were removing would
crush us to death; a death, II possible.
worse than the other. Then 1 thought OF
the aperture through which the light
came. Springing from my platform
seized brick and threw 1t down. 1t was
just too large, but using another brick as
a hammer L smashed it and threw the
broken pieces down the aperture. trust
ing to Providence that nobody was below
who would give the alarm.
Nothing fresh happened. however. and
with frenzied hards 1 tore the bricks
from the ceiling. / row needed nothing
to stand upon, for the ceiling was not
more than four and half feet from the
floor, and had to stoop to work. All the
time 1 was working Sir Richard was
brea...ng the bricks and forcing them be-
low. l had got about fifteen of the spikes
out. when l noticed that we were rising
much more rapidly, and urged him to
IdSitu, anu just
made the discovery that the next four or
five spikes were Joined together like
harrow. and bricks and spikes came away
together with crash. Now 1 had to
kneel down to the work, as only three
feet separated ceiling from floor.
At last considered that the hole was
large enough for our purpose; it was
about four and a half feet square. or
rather longer than broad. By the time I
had finished Sir Richard had got lid of
most of the bricks. l took off my coat
and laid it down on the floor in the place
Lad intended for Sir Richard. and laid
him down upon it, tucking his legs well
up within the four and a half feet limit,
and then laid myself down beside him.
Oh, the agony of those torturous min
utes, Higher. higher. and higher we got;
now more slowly, and presently one of
the remaining spikes was trying its point
in one of the hriel..=5 which we had omit
ted to dispose of. We were well within
the cavity and still had half a foot of
space above US, but surely there was now
more than half foot, yes, foot two
feet and in less than couple of min
utes we were level with the ground again
l then sat W and talked matters over
with Sir Richard. We had been talking
for about twenty minutes when key was
inserted in the lock. Hastily pulling Sir
Richard to the back of the door. 1 seiZ-
ed loose spike and waited. The door was
pushed open, and our old friend. the mas
ter. was inside.
You fiend!' said l. springing at his
throat and bringing him to the ground.
At this moment a most unfortunate ac-
cident occurred. The door. directly he let
go his hold. started to swing back with
the key outside. Sir Richard sprang for
ward to stop it. but stumbled and fell.
with his right arm outside the door. 1t
saved the situation, but lost him his
arm.
1 tore off my braces and bound the
semi-conscious keeper l then asked him
which he would prefer: Like Jael TO have
a spike driven through his miserable
head. or to save his life by leading US
safely out of his den.
He chose the latter and l unbound his
legs, and taking a spike 1 held it at his
forehead the point just piercing his skin,
from which triclIled drop or two of
blood. The coward shook with fear. Sir
arm was hanging limp at his
side. but he took another spike ready to
strike at the slightest suspicion of
struggle. Thus we led the villain forth.
Alter traversing numerous passages und
halls we at last saw the glorious sunshine
streaming under i door at the end of
passage. The master put the key into the
ock and opened the door. and at this no
nent Sir Richard tainted. Throwing MIN
,ver my shoulders I struggled up the out
side steps into the yard.