The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-05-18
Dan Dermot in the Tower Hi11 Cave.
r.
Submitted in The Tribune's Short Story Contest.

| place up was on account Of the shelly
| rock in the roof, which kept falling In
| fragments on the incline, and this
made II necessary for some one to
ride on the front of the empty cars
as they slowly descended into the mine
at the end of the cable.
Bert kearncy was the young man
whose duty 1t was to ride on the de-
scending cars. and ii was also a part
of his duty to hook the cable onto the
loaded cars. and give the signal for
, hosting.
"'rhc engineer was Tim Murphy, God
be good to him, and he had a fine
looking daughter Nellie. who was reck-
oEed to he about the handsomest girl
in the place.
Nell and I had been friends since
we were children and when she reach-
ed the beauty of womanhood | natur-
ally fell in love with her and felt that
she had warm affection for me.
"A surprise party had been planned
hy the young people of the neighbor-
hood in honor of Nell on her
eighteenth birthday. /. of course. was
there. so was Bert Kearrey. I had al
ways noticed that Bert was quite taken
UP NllH .SeII, anu tIlHt Snt WAS nOtlCt-
ably friendly towards him.
"1'he night of the party I did not
see Nellie to have our usual little
chat because of her busy occupation
as the hostess. About II o'clock my
impatience for personal interview
wore on me so much that l went in
search of Nell
II had searched the kitchen and sit
ting room, and had just opened the
hall door to pass into the parlor when
what did see but Bert Kearney kiss
ing the blushing cheek of my sweet
heart under the glow of the hall lamp
Il was nonplussed. a murderous de-
mon seemed to take me into his sin
full grasp Without moments hesi-
tation I rushed past them. snatched
my hat from the hall rack and left her
home for the nearest saloon, where l
washed down gups of anger and sinful
gloatings with burning whiskey.
"'rhe next day was the last we work.
ed at this place. In the morning we
received our wages and before evening
my brain was on fire and I was in
sane with the cursed drink. Every
time that Bert came up out of the pit
l felt like springing at his throat In
my Jealous rage. seemed to think
it would be vengeance sweet to feel
his life slowly ebbing out in the grasp
of my grimy fingers
During the afternoon we had hoist
cd all the tools and We're ordered to
leave an empty car at the foot of the
slope that could be had in case they
would need one for further use
,,,n,ptol ~. l,,,,,,o,. ,,,,1
I picked up the cable hood. An insane
idea struck my muddled brain: reel
ed to the car. flung the cable aside
and lurched the car over the head of
the plain with a mighty force. hoping
in my riurderous fury that the uncor-
trOlicd car would strike the wall of
anthracite here at the foot of the slope
and dash the life out of the man whom
/ regarded as my hated rival
Il then fastened home and that
night gave to me the horrors of a
thousand hells
THE next morning | was stumbling
along the street under the weight Of
a guilty conscience. trying to cool my
fcvered brain in the open air, when
Bert kearrey srasped me by the hand
and said:
congratulate you. Dan: my cousin
Nellie Murphy said she loved you the
other night so | gave her n kiss for
luck on her giving me the informa-
ton
You're alive | exclaimed: how
about the care Oh he answered,
that was a bad mistake on your part,
but lot of shelly fragments fell from
the roof onto the track, checked the
speed of the car and it stopped about
thirty feet from the foot: | came out
without a scratch
II then told him my murderous in
tcntion and begged his forgiveness,
which was freely granted, for Bert