The Democratic advocate., 1907-07-26
Perhaps the man above had been deaf,
and the next would have better ears. He
waited, hoped, trembling.

waited, hoped, trembling.
All this time the dread of an approach
ing whistle hung over him. Again and
again he seemed to hear it, faint and pen
etrating, and at every suspicion his hail
bristled. The bridge lifted often at that
hour. Already it had remained dowr
much longer than he had supposed posi-
BILE. Any second might herald his doom.
There was little prospect of attracting the
notice of the bridge tenders, snugly en-.
sconced in their house on that cold night.
| Would another pedestrian never come?
Waiting there in the centre of the pit
Harvey forgot the freezing water in which
he stood, forgot his smarting hands and
numbly aching joints All else was over
shadowed by the nightmare of those tons
Of iron suspended over his head, ready at
any instant to descend and crush out his
life. He knew that men had fallen into
these wells before, and that their bodies
had been taken out unreconizable days and
weeks afterward. Was that to be his
fate?
On a sudden another football sounded
above, firm, unhesitating, rapid Evi-
IDENTIFY its owner was bent on business. A
thought of his own appointment, of his
friend waiting in the comfortable station,
consulting his watch and wondering why
he did not come, flashed through Harvey's
mind, and he remembered that it was his
fatal habit of being behind time that had
involved him in this predicament. All
this shot through the merchants brain
even as he raised his voice to shout again.
This time the passerby, apparently pre-
occupied with his own thoughts, was not
arrested by the faint cries under him.
Without hesitating the footsteps passed on
and died away Monroe had been almost
deafened by the echoes of his own clamor-
ing Strange that no one else could hear
it
Then, almost paralyzing brain and body,
came the thing he had so long dreaded.
A faint whistle penetrated his dungeon.
He knew that in the open air outside it
was the loud screech of an approaching
tug. All would be over ere many seconds
had passed
Just then rapid footsteps above again
fell on his ears Evidently some one was
fastening to get across before the bridge
should be raised. Monroe, grasping at
the faint hope of rescue, set the pit ring
ing with his cries.
Overhead came creaking, a clanking.
They were starting to raise the draw. The
footsteps stopped suddenly. The man had
been too late to cross, and must wait until
the tug had passed.
The roof of the merchants prison slid
harshly back The counterweight was
descending. Whatever he did must be
done within the neKt few seconds. Could
he make the man above appreciate his
peril, so that he in turn might cause the
bridge tenders to understand in time to
check the counterweight?
Harvey's voice rose in hoarse shrek
of agony, strange in his own ears, hardly
that of human being
"Help! Help! Stop the bridget
The pedestrian above, astounded at the
cry rising so unexpectedly under his feet,
started back, and stood for an instant pet
rifed. Then realizing that life was at
stake, he screamed to the bridge-tenders:
"There' man in the pit Stop the
bridget
Monroe, fattening himself against the
cement wall, awaiting with trembling knees
the doom that he feared could not be
averted, saw in the dim light admitted by
the sliding back of his dungeon lid the
black threatening mass Of the great coun-
terweight overhead, and dropping slowly,
He heard the shout of the
man above. Would the tenders under
stand in time?
Down came the weight, lower, lower.
Three seconds more and it would surely
crush him. He groaned in despair. Then
it stopped, so close to his head that he
could have touched its Shiny bottom with
his finger tips, and he knew that he was
saved