The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-11

ping of the stamp in the mill. Suddenly the white figure outstretched her arms as though she was about to dash herself upon the rocks at my very feet. A shril scream that sounded high above the notes of the mill pierced the air. and Clemen- tia fell back upon the rocks upon which she was slttin. I turned my head away for an instant, and when I looked up al the dizzy height to the spot again she had disappeared.
 The next evening the new foreman of the day shift came to me in great excite ment. He whispered that some great ca lamity was about to befall the mine or some one who worked in its depths.
 What makes you think so?" l asked
 "S-h-hr' he cautioned. Don't speak SC loud, some of the other men might hear you How do I know that trouble is com' ing?" he repeated. Tt is because l saw Q woman in the mine today"
 Well, what of thatT'
 He looked at me with an expression of astonlshment.
 "Whatl Don't senor know that when a woman enters a mine calamity Is sure to come? Well, the men know it. When they find that the Porvenor has been visited by a woman no more work will they do in the mine."
 1 grasped the gravity of the situation it was a superstition of the ignorant la borers that l now had to deal with. The new foreman told me that he saw the woman fit along one of the lower levels of the mine and go into one of the aban- doned chambers None of the laborers saw her and he had come to me with the fn- formation in the hope that I might sug- gest something to be done to prevent the woman's presence from becoming known to the men, I was not given time to think out plan of action. We were still talking when the several hundred men employed on the day shift came dropping up the ladder and out of the shaft like rats leaving a sinking ship. The woman visitor had appeared among them and they lost no time in quitting the mine. l talked to them of the foolishness Of he superstition but my words had no ef- feet They shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders and stoutly refused to re-enter the mine.
 The woman had been recognized. She was Clementia. The murder of Manuel had crazed her and she might make the mine her home for days to come. When the men on the night shift arrived and heard the story they, too refused to en- ter the shalt I asked the men if any of them would go with me into the mine and capture Clementia. They all shooK their heads except Jose. He came up to
 
 "Iu 20 into the mine alone. You stay here. I know Clementia. She maybe will do what l wish
 He strode over to the mouth of the shaft and an instant later he had disap- peared down the ladder. We waited all night for him to reappear. Day was just beginning to break when out Of the shaft climbed Clementia. Her beautiful face haa an unnatural paleness, and her nan was disheveled. -.4e group of men who were gathered around fell back with fright when thew saw her. She fled rap idly up the mountain trail, no one trying to stop her passage. Now that she was out of the mine I soon got together a few men and we went down in search or lose. We found his head body lying close to the foot of the ladder. Knife wounds were all over it.
 'He is stabbed the same as Manuel was" one of the men remarked.(
 We carried the dead body to the sur face. and when we reached there I found q messenger from the mill waiting to in- form me that Clementia had jumped from the rock where had seen her two nights before. and that her body was dashed to pieces upon the rocks below.