Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1903-01-24

| Inc 1--WE was a crack three feet wide
and beneath it an opening several feet
deep.
Resting for a moment at the INNER
cage OF the under cake, Hardman stem
pee upon the one above, not noticing
how insecure was his position. In
stantly his foot Slipped and he fell into
the crack between. He clutched at the
slippery edge as he went down, hung
suspended by his arms for a second.
then his hands losing their hold, he
dropped just In time to escape being
crushed For the lightly poised
block had been started downward by
his weight, and crashed against the
lower one as he struck in a heap be-
low. He was caught like a squirrel
in a boX-trap in a narrow, irregular
space among the blocks, about three
feet wide, five feet long, and six feet
high.
For a moment Hardman did not re
alize the gravity Of his situation. He
felt sure that he could cut himself
out with his jack-knife, OR at least
make a hole through which he could
signal to camp for help by thrusting
out his coat and waving it. The sun
light f1ittering in through a chink
gave promise Of this, and helped to
relieve the semidarkness of his prison
He inspected his camera in leisure
ly fashion, glad to find that it had not
been in the least injured by the fail,
took out his knife and then looked at
his watch. It was ten O'Clock; the
tide was due at three minutes to
twelve. Then all at once the peril of
his position flashed upon him; the
tide would set the whole jam in mo-
| ton, perhaps demolish it. If he did
not escape he would be ground to
powder. One movement of a cake
would annih.faGe him
For an awful moment "a sickening
terror clutched him, but shaking it
off, he began to make a calculation.
| He had just one hour and fifty seven
minutes in which to cut his way out
! and get ashore. Could he do it? A
tunnel large enough for the passage
/ of his body must be made through
thirty inches of hard, brittle ice by
|
| Selecting the most vulnerable point
| of attack, the slight crack between the
cage that formed the cover of the trap
and the one that formed the lower
wall he began chipping away the ice.
At first he worked with feverish anXi-
ETY., but gradually his usual GOODNESS
returned.
| 11o ho1 CIR W o6
| to a depth of ten inches, he noticed
that he was letting the hole get small
! er the deeper it went into the ice. If
! the dimensions were allowed to de-
| crease any more he saw that the hole
would be much 100 narrow for his exit
! by the time the cake was pierced. So,
! beginning at the bottom, he enlarged
the tunnel until it seemed to him
| that it's necessary conveyance would
still leave a wide enough opening
when the surface was reached.
Soon operations were again delayed.
| He was obliged to stop and cut foot
holds in the almost perpendicular
side of the lower wall that he might
raise himself enough to work with ad-
vantage.
At last judging that he had cut half
way, Hardman looked at his watch
again. It was seven minutes past
eleven. He had been sixty minutes
in cutting the easier half Only fifty
minutes remained; it seemed useless
to go on.
thine and tide wait Cor no man"
the trite old saying struck him with
a new and appalling force. But he
must and would get out in time. His
despair gave way to resolution, and
he set to work with renewed Vlgor,
striking so sforcibly that the blade
threatened to break at every jab.
Although surrounded with walls OF
ice Hardman2s whole body dripped
with nerspiration. Every muscle in
his arms and shoulders ached intol-
erably with the strain of clinging to
the vertical wall and picking away the
relentless ice overhead. Showers OF
chips poured down upon his face, half
binding him. and he worked IN a great
| measure by guess Yet slowly the
tunnel was cut upward inch by inch
until he estimated there could be no
more than three inches left.
At this point he was seized with a
lurking fear that another block would
/ slip down from above and double the
thickness of the cover. In frenzy
of haste he struck recklessly. The
blade snapped short off at the handle
Not daring to look at his watch
Hardman opened the small blade, and
steadying his nerves began again, very
carefully now. A dozen strokes, and
the knife pierced clear through the
cake. There was nothing on top. He
listened for the roar of the expected
tide, but the only sounds he heard
were the soft tapping of the waves at
the foot of the jam and the hoarse
scream of a raven wheeling in the still
air high overhead.
Cutting out the opening to a size
sufficient, he thought, to permit the
| h 10 HardTnAn 2raSDeQ