Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-27

real wateri And the desert
was reali And so was the
forest! And it was no use
trying to take him in he was
an old, experienced traveller :.
he had been all over the place,
And he dragged himself along. say
ing: Water, Water,"
And his mouth was open, as though
he were drinking.
And my mouth was open, too, as
though I were drinking.
Fer we not only saw the water, but
we heard it, We heard it
flow, We heard it ripple, . Do
you understand that word ''ripple?"
1t is a sound which you hear
with your tongue, You put
your tongue out Of your mouth to
listen to it better,
Lastly-and this was the most pitt
less torture Of alive heard the rain
and it was not raining! This was an
Internal invention. Oh,
knew well enough how Erik obtained
it! He filed with little stones very
long and narrow box. broken up in
side with wooden and metal pTojec-
lions. The stones, in falling, struck
against these projections and re-
bounded from one to another; and
the result was a series of pattering
sounds that exactly initiated a rain
storm.
All, you should have seen US putting
out our tongues and dragging our
selves toward the ripping riverbank!
Our eyes and ears were full OF water,
but our tongues were hard and dry
as hornl
When We reached the mirror, NJ. de
Chagny licked it and l also
licked the glass.
It was burning hot,
Then we rolled on the floor with q
hoarse cry OF despair. VI. de Chagny
put the one pistol that was still load
ed to his temple; and stared at the
Punjab lasso at the foot of the iron
tree. / knew why the iron tree had
returned, in this third change OF
scene! The iron tree was
waiting for me!
But, as l stared at the Punjab lasso,
l saw a thing that made me start so
violently that NJ. de Chagny delayed
his attempt at suicide. l took his
arm. And then l caught the pistol
from him and then l dragged
myself on my knees toward what l
had seen.
I had discovered, near the Punjab
iasso, in a groove IN the floor, a black
4 headed nail OF which / knew the use.
At last l had discovered the spring!
l felt the nail | lifted a
radiant face to NJ. de Chagny.
4 The black-headed hail yielded to my
. pressure.
And then.
And then we saw net a door opened
in the wall, but a celIar-fiap released
N the floor. Cool air came up to us
from the black hole below. We
stopped over that square Of darkness
as though ever a limpid well. With
our chins il the cool shade, We drank
it in.
And We bent lower and lower over
the trap-dCor. What could there be
in that cellar which opened before US:
Water? Water to drink?
l thrust my arm into the darkness
and came upon stone and another
stone staircase &
dark staircase leading into the cellar
The Yisccunt wanted to fling himself
down the hole; but l, fearing new
trick Of the monsters, stopped him
turned on my dark lantern and went
down first.
The staircase was a winding one
and led down into pitchy darkness
But on. how deliciously cool we're the
darkness and the stairs? The lake
could not be far away.
We soon reached the bottom. Oul
eyes were beginning to accUston
themselves TO the dark, to distinguish
shapes around US circular
shapes on which I turned Tho
light of my lantern.
Barrels!
We were in Erik's cellar; it wa!
here that he must keep his wine ant
; perhaps his drinking water. knew
!, that Erik was a great lover Of gooC
wine. An, there was plenty to drinl
|, herel
} II. de Chasny patted the rounC
shapes and kept on saying:
: Barrels! Barrels! VIVA
a lot OF barrels, ="
Indeed, there was quite a numbe
Of them, symmetr!caIly arranged il
Two rows, one on either side OF us
They We're small barrels and
thought that Erik must have selected
them Of that size TO facilitate thet
carriage TO the house on the lake.
We examined them successfully, L
see il one OF them had not a funnel
, showing that it had been tapped a
, some time or another. But all tn
barrels were Theoretically closed.
Then, after half lifting one to max
sure il was full, We went on our knee
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