The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1906-11-23

with fear l called loudly for help. The
rsverberating echoes of my own voice
told me | was in one of those vast cav
erns with which this section of the
State abounds.
With this discovery came reason
and began to think.
had often heard Bob Clary, the
old bee hunter, tell Of the caves on
Lost Greek, where the bees made their
nests, and had seen the pits on Black
burns Bluff less than mile from my
fathers house.
These pits were more or less perpen-
dicular in depth, ftrty feet or more to
the bottom and of irregular shape.
The walls of some of these could not
he scaled by even the wildcat or pan.
ther, while others could with difficulty
be slmbed In some of them [ had
seen the bones of cattle and sheep,
showing whore some maurading beast
had held high carnival.
As this all came to my mind | took
courage. If my prison had an outlet
by way of the pits on Back burn g
Bluff there was at least a chance for
my rescue if could ever reach there.
| knew it must be over half mile to
the bluffs, and that distance | must
grope in absolute darkness. Once
there | could at least behold the bless
ed light from above, and hope for res
cue from some outside source. Thus
buoyed with hope l began to move
cautiously forward on my hands and
knees in the direction of what I
thought to be the larger part of the
cave, judging from the sounds eman-
ating therefrom as 1 shouted from
time to time.
The floor of the cave was here al
most level and l made rapid progress.
Losing some of my timidity as I ad.
vanced l had arisen to my feet and
was walking without difficulty. Ihad
proceeded thus for probably quarter
of a mile seemingly in almost a
straight line when I suddenly became
aware of faint sound from the direc-
tion in which was travelling, and my
next step brought me against solid
stone wall: Carefully feeling my way
along the wall, which seemed to curve
to the left at this point had proceed
ed only few steps when my foot dis
lodged some small stones, which went
rumbling downward, and after the
lapse of second or two I could dis
tinctly hear the chug! chug! as they
struck the water. The sound l had
heard then must be that of running
water, possibly of Lost Creek, where
it disappears in the rocks, just after
skirting Blackburn's Bluff: II this
was the case would be more than
100 feet below the top of the bluff, and
half that distance below the bottom OF
the deepest pit l had ever looked into
on that bluff.
With my hands against the wall and
by carefully reaching out with my
feet | found l was on a narrow ledge,
on which it was very difficult to re-
tain my footing. l worked my way
along this narrow shelf, which was at
some points alarmingly steep, for pos
sibly 100 feet, when my pathway came
to an end Evidently l could proceed
no farther in this direction, and was
on the point of turning back when
that befell me which, though seeming
for the time a calamity, was in reality
the guiding hand Of providence.
was sitting on the narrow led e
throwing pebbles into the water below
rnd mentally calculating the distance,
when I suddenly felt the gravelly
bench begin to slide, and in that aw-
full moment l realized the extent OF
my peril. Ii l missed the rocks and
struck the water the chances were that
I would be stunned and strangled be-
fore I could regain my breath. l
clawed madly st the treacherous grav-
ell, and as I went over the bank caught
q projecting rock and held on with the
tenacity of desperation. Ny feet were
dangling in the air and my hold was
weakening! l shut my eyes and pre-
pared for the inevitable plunge |
thought how my body would be sought
in vain. 1 prayed!
Ny fingers slowly relaxed, and |
dropped-six feet below to fat rock!
Joy unspeakable! Shortly before l
was bewailing my fate and now / was
sobbing with very joy. So overcome
was that it was several minutes be
fore l gained sufficient strength to en-
able me to learn the extent OF the