The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-19

man what fetched you the message Is
 one O Masons laborers. Nobody ain
 broke jail. Him and Jennie is goin' to
 elope. You got to go back and pinch
 him. Have you got the Warrant?"
 Stark had it, and in his own wise way
 determined to use it.
 i You go back and watch the house" "
 said Stark. Don't let 'em escape. I'll
 go round by the back lot, sneak up | through Gunder's pasture and surprise
 em!"
 "All right. sheriff. Look out for the prospect holes!"
 i Stark yielded his horse to Brooks, | and getting over the fence was swal- l lowed up in the blackness. Brooks l rode back to the house, tied his horse | at the fence and peeped in the win | dows. He was rewarded by seeing Jen- | nie, smiling and radiant, in the midst of az roup of men, one of whom hee quickly recognized as Dexter Mason Waiting till the old man is gone fur enough" <" he chattered, crouching in the cold rain.
 Meanwhile Stark stumbling and groping through GunderIs pasture, teok
 many q pull at the cheering flask. He lost his way, circled, counted trees and at last became aware that he was not more than 100 yards from his own
 house. He found the fence, sprawled
 across it, drained his bottle and like a
 mad bull with his head down, charged
 across the field. But he forgot that there were prospect holes In his own
 land Indeed, If he had not been drunk he would have known even in the darkness that his path lay right across his latest diggings, some uncov cred, some half-filled, others more than fifty feet deep. He had not run a doz- en strides before he pitched headlong into a yawning pit not blacker than the ground, not darker than the murky night. Crawling wildly at the air, screaming q curse, he pitched into the abyss struck shoulder and arm against a cross timber of the orlbbing, seized it in final spasm of hope and reason and hung by his wrenched hands suspend ed twelve feet below the Cimmerian surface and perhaps forty above the rocky bottom which yawned i'm penetrable at his feet.
 He roared for help scrambled to get one leg across the saving beam and howled with the pain which the useless effort cost him. He could not see even the dark walls of his prison, above him there was no glow of star or moon, be- meath him gaped Erebus, hungry for his life. He screamed till the very volume of his cries seemed to break fro nP ba nil bi ioI, lat tered down into the depths and rattled mockery at him. But at last he heard a door slam, then the sound of voices and rosy hint of light. He screamed again, and presently the radiance above him intensified, the sounds came near CT, and looking up he saw a group of men peering down at him.
 "Who is it?" said the voice of Dex- ter Mason.
 Its me, Stark, the sheriff; for Gods sake, Mason, help me out. I-"
 You're interrupting the wedding, Jasper" scoffed Mason, but I'll get you out If you'll give Jennie your bless ing"
 "GO to -" roared Stark.
 "Oh, well, if that's the way you feel about it, laughed the cruel young ras- cal, well just leave you there. Come on, boys haste to the wedding" And the group actually turned away, laugh | ing heartily as they went The sheriff roared repentance, promised everything, swore he would forgive i everything and bless" everybody, but the light vanished, the voices grew fainter and at last the door slammed
 Left to his doom, the hapless man felt . his limbs grow numb, his breath failed . him, and he hung in the viewless, sti- fling air like some great wounded bird of prey apoise at midnight above a. rayless waste, drenched with the pelt- ing rain, hearing nothing but the moan ing drge of the wind as it swept across his head hoping nothing but that he might faint before he fell He tried to look down to see how far he must 1rop, he tried to edge along the pole that upheld him. he peered into the black zenith for some ray of hope He screamed once more, but, as if in an- ,wer, came the Hitting music of fiddle md harp, The wedding dance was be- gun! He felt sudden ecstasy in his 'evered blood, a chill like the breath of he grave enveloped him, his eyes 'wam, his head grew light as a toy balloon. He felt his grip relax, mo- iced that the splinters of the pole de- ayed his doom, tried to forget Jennie md dropped-ten inches.-Chicago Record Herald.
 CASTOETA.