The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-05

! AAlysClls he
'I believe he Lied. but I was in no
state of mind to balance probabili-
! ties. The man appeared to me as a
perncious reptile, that it would be an
act of grace to kill. I sprang at him
| barehanded, and he flung heavy glass
| retort straight at nay head. 1t smasneo
on my temple, and the next instant
! had him by the throat and we went
| down together, his head crashing on
| the stone floor. I thought he was
/ dead but after moment L discovered
/ that he was alive, but badly stunned.
| The cold-box stood open, for l hao
! just finished preparations for an expert
ment, and dragged him into 1t, NUT
| tering, remember, Stay there! stay
! there! and shut down the LID.
81 swear that I had no sober no
ton of killing the man. If I had been
| in my senses I would have returned
and let him out presently and had II
out in some other way. But the plood
was running down my face, and was
! half dazed with the blow had re-
ceived. I hurried UP the shaft ana
ran out into the woods, unconscious OF
where l went but feeling driven TO
move. I must have roamed about for
hours without knowing it, and | was
only brought to myself by hard pe4t
of cold rain on my bare head.
''You know how thunderstormS come
up in the mountains. The sky had
turned a livid purple, and at that mo-
ment a flash of lightning exploded with
a noise like the crack of whip, fol-
lowed instantly by a terrific clap. l
ran for the house, which was not more
than half q mile distant. The ram
came heavier, shot through with vivid
near lightning. AS 1 approached the
buildings 1 saw the puffs of steam from
the engine shed, and remembered that
1 had ordered the machinery to be
started at O'Clock. l looked at my
watch; it was half-past ten.
''I hardly dared to think what might
have happened. I had just reached the
door of the house when the world
seemed to turn to white fire. 1 was
knocked down on the threshold, and
! distinctly felt thz- earth quake at the
fearful peal of thunder that came with
| the flash.
But the discharge had missed me,
| after all. 1t had struck our lightning
arrester, ard when 1 got up dizzily and
went into the hut 1 saw the ravage 1t
had made. Jumping from the conductor
! it had smashed and melted the lnstru-
ments, split and SCARED the table, and
| finally seemed to have gone down the
| electric wires leading underground.
'I went down, and then returned to
! lift the lid of the cold box<by the tackle
| that ran above. When l descended
again the lid stood open, but there was
70 corpse there-nothing but what you
| see.
1.-The horror of the thing almost up
| set my mind. / couldn't touch the
| golden image. l covered it up, paid
| off and dismissed my enginemen and
went to Denver, where you found me:
1 was free of my tormentor,, but l had
| q 7 didn't dare think
| of Helen. What to do l didn't know. l
! think l would have shot myself if you
| hadn't turned up
ION the contrary" 1 said, "it seems
to me that you should feel that most
| of your troubles are done with"
So argued the case with him for an
| hour in that cold cavern in the rock
over the yellow image. Finally he
cheered up a little, and consented to
adopt my view.
"Tell her the whole story as you
| have told it to me-" l advised. "1f she's
any good, she'll stick to you. Report
the whole affair TO the authorities, and
take what they give you. But 1 think
| I can safely promise that you won't
be badly treated"
And what will we do with this %
| said Gienny pointing to the image.
'I would remark l said, that you
are a poor man now, and that you have
here almost a hundred and eighty
pounds of excellent gold, worth some
$40,O 900 at the mint"
Never" he declared. "I could as
soon rob a grave. No, wait. / have a
better plan. Let's see if the engines are
in working order"
They appeared to be, and I got up
! steam with an enormous expenditure
of time and unsldlled labor, while
! Glenny busted himself with numerous
occult preparations. Finally, we started
the apparatus. and waited.
After an hour the machinery was
stopped, and we raised the lid of the
cold box by the rope and tackle in the
upper chamber. A freezing blast swept
up the shaft, followed by a cloud of
white vapor. It's touch made me shud-
der I hardly knew why. Glenny was
pale and impatient.
Presently we went below. There was
nothing in the box, absolutely nothing.
Melted to air!" he muttered. Melted
to air! My God, <irkman. from this
day I never touch thrse devfrs arts
again"
Then we ascended the shaft for the
last time and went out to where the
horses were stamping under the pines.