The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-06-06
Continued from yesterday.)

ed boots for q pair so worn that they
scarcely held together, but their dry
ness was comforting An odd feeling
Of contentment. largely induced by the
grateful heat of the fire, rendered his
actions leisurely. Quite half an hour
elapsed before he thought of peeping
through the back window to ascertain
the progress Of external events. The
rain was not now pelting down with
abnormal fury. 1t was still falling, but
with the quiet persistence that marks
in London parlance-"a genuine wet
day" The steam had almost vanished.
When he removed his coat from the
broken panes he saw with surprise
that the fagstones in the yard were
dry within a circle Of two feet around
the hole made by the meteor. Such
drops as fell within that area were in
stantly obhterated, and tiny Jets of
vapOr from the hole itself betrayed the
presence of the fiery object beneath.
His boyish curiosity being thoroughly
aroused, he drew an old sack over his
head and shoulders, unlocked a door
which led into the yard from a tiny
scullery and cautiously approached the
place where the meteor had plowed its
way into the ground. The stones were
Uttered with debris. but the velocity of
the heavy mass had been so great that
comparatively clean cut was made
through the pavement.
The air was warm with the hot
breath of an oven, and 1t was as much
as Philip could bear when he stood on
the brink of the hole and peeped in.
At a good depth, nearly half his own
height he estimated, he saw a round
ball firmly imbedded in the earth. 1t
was duly red, with its surface all
cracks and assures as the result of the
water poured onto it. Much larger
than q football, it seemed to him at
first sight to be the angry eye of some
colossal demon glazing up at him from
a dark socket. But the boy was alb
solutely a stranger to fear. He pro-
cured the handle of mop and prodded
the meteor with it. The surface felt
hard and brittle. Large sections broke
away, though they did not crumble,
and he received a sharp reminder of
the potency of the heat still stored be-
low when the wood burst into sudden
fame
This ended his investigations for the
night. He used the sacking to block
up the window, replenished the fire.
set his coat to dry and dragged his
mattress from the bedroom to the front
Of the fire The warmth within and
without the house had made him intol-
erably drowsy. and he fell asleep while
murmuring his prayers. a practice
abandoned since the hour Of his moth
erS death.
In reality Philip was undergoing a
novel sort of Turkish bath, and the
perspiration induced thereby probably
saved him from dangerous cold. He
slept long and sOundly. There was no
need to attend to the fire. Long ere
the coal in the CRATE was exhausted
the presence of the meteor had pene-
trated the surrounding earth, and the
house was far above its normal tenn
perature when he awoke.
The sun had risen in cloudless sky.
A lovely spring morning had succeed
ed a night of gloom and disaster, and
the first sound that greeted his won
dering ears was the twittering Of the
busy sparrows on the housetops. OF
course he owned neither clock nor
watch. These articles, with many 9th
ers. were represented by a bundle OF
pawn tickets stuffed into one of the
envelopes Of his mothers packet OF
letters. But the experience of even 8
few weeks had taught him roughly
how to estimate time by the sun and
he guessed the hour to be o'clock or
whereabouts.
His first thought was of the meteor
His toilet was that of primeval man
/ being a mere matter Of rising and
stretching his stiff limbs. While lac
! ing his boots he noticed that the fool
was Uttered with tiny white specks
| the largest Of which was not bigger
than a grain Of bird seed. These were
the particles which shot through the
| broken window during the previous
night He picked up a few and ex
| amined them. They were hard, colo
to the touch and a dull white color.
On entering the yard he saw hun
dreds of these queer little rough peb
bles, many Of them as large as peas
some the size Of marbles and a few
| bigger ones. They had eyidentl.
flown on all sides, but, encounterin!
lofty walls, save where they forced
way through the thin glass Of til
window. had fallen back to the ground
Interspersed with them he foun'
pieces of broken stone and tagget
Jumps of material that looked and fel
like iron.
By this time the meteor itself ha
cooled sufficiently TO reveal the natur
Of its outer crust. 1t appeared TO b
an amalgam of the dark ironlike mir
eral and the white pebbles. Throug
one deep assure he could still see IN
fiery heart Of the thing. and he In
agined that when the internal hes
had quite exhausted itself the grea