The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1905-01-03
CHAPTER <.
Continued.

am not coward, yet I own that
the terror Of the following minutes
thrills me now as / look back upon it.
The inpenerable darkness, the silence,
rendered only more intense by. contrast
with the perpetual tic-tac, tic-tac, tic
tao, tic-tac Of the watch behind me,
were made terrific by the awful uncer-
tainty Of my position.
stood there waiting for the attack,
until, the suspense growing intolera-
Bile, felt that must end it by shout
ing aloud to Brace, and precipitating
the struggle.
I will wait five minutes longer and
no more, / said to myself, resolving
to calculate the space fairly, and with
due allowance for false impressions. /
calculated that two minutes had
passed, when l fancied that heard the
bed creak behind me. Was this one
of the false impressions had promised
myself TO guard against, or was the
sound caused by the man mounting
upon the bed behind me?
The LSir bristled upon my head as
thought, and drew my head down into
my shoulders, for, as surely as IL my
eyes had been turned that way. and
the full light Of the sun shining in the
room, / knew that the man was be-
hind me upon the bed.
/ drew a deep inspiration, resolved
TO shout my loudest to Grace, but be-
fore the sound had PASSED my lips a
towel was drawn tight upon my face,
and my head jerked back against the
post behind me. A fold of the towel
gagged me completely; it was with diff
fculty breathed I struggled, but in
vain, to wrench myself away; quick
and sure. hand had knotted the towel.
| threw up my hands to tear the thing
off; in an instant they were enveloped
in the thick curtains, and though the
fellow had not sufficient strength to
tie them down to my side, he at least
baffied my attempts to free my head.
drew my feet from the ground, hop
ing that my weight would drag my
head from the towel; only succeeded
In drawing the knots tighter, and half
strangling myself.
AS I could not release my head I got
my arms down and tried to seize the
rascal's feet, but he kept them beyond
my reach; yet ! got something by the
attempt, for, in cropping about, laid
my hand upon the knife which he had
thrust in the bed, to have free use Of
his hands. the better to overcome the
resistance of my arms. I should have
had no hesitation in haln-stringing the
rascal if i could have got at his legs,
but as could not do that determined,
if possible, to keep the knife out Of his
way.
/ felt by the horn handle that it was
the one Van Hoeck had given me, and
knowing the trick Of the blade I shut
it up and slipped it into my pocket.
Now, thought ], "if only thews and
sinews are concerned we will see who
can get the best of it,"
/, And with redoubled efforts strug
gled to tear down the bed curtains that
hampered my movements, and, mad
hened by the difficulty OF respiration I
threw such force into my efforts that
khe pole upon which they hung
crunched under the rings and finally
came rafting down about us. Would
that the lamp had been near to be
smashed by the fall! The noise was
too slight to be heard at a distance.
My left hand being free, l felt again
for the knot Of the towel that bound
me to the post. A bony hand grasped
my wrist, and dragged it over my
shoulder, and the next moment I felt
something pressed under my nose, and
a liquid trickling through my mustache
onto my lips. 1t had sweet taste
and strong smell Of apples, that
mounted at once to my brain.
seemed to be no longer touching the
ground but whirling round and round
through space; my arms dropped by
my side.
/ knew that was powerless. yet
retained a certain kind OF conscious
ness. / was sensible that the difficulty
of breathing no longer troubled me,
knew that the man was binding my
arms to the post, and remember
thinking, in the bemused manner Of a
half intoxicated person, what a fool he
must be to bind me when could, no
longer make resistance. was perfect
~ conscious when he began to tie my
feet to the post below, for had then
sufficiently overcome the effect Of the
opiate to think of resistance. ! tried
to struggle and to scream, but to no
purpose; my win had lost all power
over my muscles. And this terrible
6mpotency reminded me Of Van Hoeek' Is
half-uttered simile: "Cramped in d
Coffin, and the clOds falling falling!''
What astonished me was the surpris.
ing facility with which the man exc!
cuted his work in the darkness that
then prevailed. He seemed to have nc
difficulty at all in finding the ends Of
the sheets with which he bound me
and knotting them securely. And when
was safely pinioned he unbuckled the
strap that bound the Great Hesper to
my wrist, without having to seek fol
the tongue Of the strap, as I myself
might have had to do.
wen, that's gone. said to myself
and, now be has the diamond, he viii
so. too
But he had not yet finished And AZ
ter a brief interval during which be
might have been bGckling the Great
Hesper upon his own wrist, ! heard q