The Washington times., 1912-05-10
Behind the Curtain"
- BY - -
CHARLES STEPHENS
Copyright. The Frank A. Munsey Coz
All RiRhta Reaervnd

made a dash into the dazzling mass OF
them with my hands over my eyes. Sew
eral OF them struck the back of my
my face as l stopped to grab the lam
tern. Then they all vanished like
shadows. -..
|. Unwilling to have another encounter
with the loatlesome things, I waiksd
lantern chosrily and whistlinK bit
now and then tn keep nv courage up
At every turn found myself stretch
the ther ny Into the fanne Nfhs or as 'To
toned. led OF from the bottom of the
SHAFT like the base OF a capital l., only
had no i'lea where this base went to-,
plore. but was afraid OF losing my way
The tedium of the business finally
drove me to make venture. And there
move away from the base OF the shaft
] had noticed, as l walked up and down:
what seemed to be th, sinuous root OF
a ,ree or cocoon yithe., oiin,ginG iI,s et. to
II, and I thought It possible that I
might be able tod climb up the shaft. II
this withe happened to be strong enough
and ran da@n tne wfoe tSe lSSiyern lwaiy np and laid
hand on 1t. Next moment I started
away, with a sudden shivering all over
Iny 5ody. what ! had taken for q
sight with queer, kissing sound. 1t
was a snake.
Now, I An not q nervous man. but
there M about %aS Snn that pfees Hed in
darkness. The thought of It being one
Of those unseeing things added to the
horror Of it. I picked up my lantern
neighborhood There was only one
course open-tho tunnel. l walked ..
few PAGES in that direction. I came to
a sharp standstill. Suppose I lost my
tioh az any imagination could conceive.
To choose one Of the many plans
which suggested themselves was an, an,
the base of the shaft to mark my start
ing point. Another advantage of this
would be that the smoke, travelling up
the shaft. would be in the nature Of a
scheme until I should have found out
how far the cave extended, and about
how much air there was. The thought
of being slowly smoked to death was
not pleasant. l have since wondered
where I expected to find other fuel than
the rope.
The scheme I next decided on was to
leave the lamp burning az the base OF
the shaft. With this beacon shining In
the gloom, 1t was not likely that i
would lose my bearings. / set down the
lantern and walked into the tunnel as
far as the illumination extended. Then
I struck a match and walked on until
the light went out. / struck another
and once more came to standstill.
Suppose / was doomed to this imprlson-
ment for any length of time? Food was
one thing; water another; air was I'M
portant, but the great thing was light
light. The thought of the darkness and
the neighborly bats and the bhno
snakes
AS | reflected on these things the
match burned my fingers. ! dropped II
hastily and next moment l foretasted
the everlasting night. I turned to look
for the lamp. There was the dim re-
| Election of 1t about forty yards back
Suppose, while standing there. 1t wen'
out and l had to grope my way bach
| to It?
Next minute had taken to my heels
| and was sprinting toward the light, al
! If it had been elusive happiness. Wher
l laid hands on the cold metal of th'
! handle my heart leaped with relief, ant
| I swore that, come what might, my
lamp and I should not part company
| again.