The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-10-16

ana lie hIoN uC Hing Iuill
1t was absolutely black and still
and cold when the clerk came to him
self. He ran his hand along the &c
ment, hard and smooth as ice, anG
touched the stairs. Gradually he
realized where he was. A big lumI
on his head under his crushed straw
nat told that the falling door must
have struck him senseless.
Charley stood up the stairs, he
pushed against the door. To his alarm
it did not yield. A step higher he
braced his shoulders under it, and
lifted with all his strength; but it
would not give millimetsr.
| Why was it so deathly still? Where
were those men unloading the car?
| With tingling fists he hammered the
ed. but not even an echo came back.
Dazed and shaking, Corey leaned
agains. the ice-cold wall. He under
stood it all now. The man had been
piling their cases temporarily on
| every available inch of floor. Amid
SO much noise they had paid no at
tention to the slamming of the trap
door, and finding it closed, had COW
! cred it with goods until the next
morning. But what would be his own
condition then. Twelve hours in
that atmosphere would freeze him.
Could he not make the night en-
gineer hear? Again he pounded and
shouted; but after several minutes OF
racket, he stopped from sheer weari-
ness. The cellar floor lay several
tett below high tide. and no sound
could penetrate its waterproofed &C.
ment wall. Upstairs it was no bet
ter. The walls were fourteen inches
thick, including ten inches of ground
shavings. Besides, the engineers
ears would be filled with the sound
of his machinery.
If he could only find and turn on
an electric light, he might discover
some way of getting out. Dropping
to the floor, he found that on tiptoe
ne could reach the low ceiling. His
hands ran across the beams, and soon
brushed a wire. Then, JOY! his fin
gers touched bulb.
Trembling with hope, he snapped
the button; there was no light. Corey
sickened with disappointment. A
switch in the engine-room, he recol-
lected controlled the entire circuit.
Suddenly he remembered that in
the middle of each floor were large
double trap-doors. Perhaps he might
be able to find the frs. pair, and
push them open.
To save time and strength, he must
make his search systematic. Begin
ring at the stairs, he walked four
teen steps to the right, till his hands
touched pile Of boxes against the
vail This gave him a starting-point. |
Turning, he paced back, past the
stairs, thirty steps in all, ill he |
reached another barrier. He now
knew the width Of the cellar. Again
turning, he walked back half that dis !
lance, fifteen steps. If his calculations
were correct, there should be mix
die passage at right angles toward the |
He stretched out his |
hands, and found such a passage.
Twelve steps along this he stumbled |
W. heap Of frozen herring. The
doors must be right overhead
Crawling up the cold, slippery pile
he felt the seam between the doors.
lie tried to lift them, but could not.
Ills fingers. pushed up through the !
Of hoy
The goods had been piled there, as
we'll as above the stairs.
Charley slid down off the herring.
a most hopeless. He was trapped. II
he stood motionless, he would soon
freeze; yet he could not keep unin-
terruptedly active the next twelve
hours To set his blood moving, he
began boxing vigorously with an inn
aginary foe. An incautious step
ahead, and he skinned his knuckles
against box.
Then he began traversing the mar
row passages, hands over his head.
exploring the ceiling. He touched all
sorts of frozen things-barrels and
sacks of fish, beeves and lambs, hang
ing fowls.
At last damper, icier current de-
scended on his head, and his fingers
a wire screen. 1t was what
he had been hunting for, the channel
by which the cold, radiating from
The upper pipes, reached the cellar.
Building with fresh hope a pyra-
mid of boxes, he climbed up, and
tried to lift the screen. 1t was fast
sned down. But the wire was small.
and he had a stout knife. The
strands, brittle with cold, snapped
one by one, and at last the opening