The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-06-25

loop of rope in his struggle, and it was
necessary not to let Tozan know this
He stopped still and waited.
Il shall watch from that rock, two
hundred feet above the bottom of the
shaft" continued Tozan. 1.-THE little
cave will protect me from any results
of the explosion. But l shall be high
enough to be out of danger, Stepan.
You will hear the dynamite shoot
down, and you will look up and see
1t falling, and then it will drop
bang!-between you two, and"
Devil" muttered Stepan, as Tozan
took himself off. He watched him
scrambling like goat up the craggy
sides, and, as soon as he was out of
immediate hearing. struggled furious.
ly with his bonds. Sophie eyed him
dumbly. Stepan knew that she had
heard everything. but she was unable
to move or cry out What would it
have sufficed, in any event?
Stepan could not get free. The loop
of rope was Stacker, but his legs and
al Lilo WClC StAli A6 uc SlTuk.
gled he saw Tozan mount the rock
and stand there; he fancied his watch
was in his hand. but it was impossible
to discern anything clearly. Cut of
above, the glare of the electric lights
beneath, the man looked like a mon
strous phantom. 1t was easy to hear.
however.
Five minutes more, Stepan," cried
Tozan's hooking voice. "In five min.
utes the rope burns through, and the
dynamite will fall plump down the
shaft between you and Sophie there
in four minutes. That will be les.
son to both of you, my friends. In
three minutes more you will be blown
to fine powder. There Is no escape,
unless a miracle saves you. In two
minutes, Stepan-"
His voice rang out through the col.
umn of air imprisoned in the shaft,
and the sonorous echoes beat in a
hundred little waves among the rocks.
In two minutes-in one minute,
Stepan!"
And the last word was drowned in
the explosion of the dynamite
Stepan, hearing the discharge, cow
cred, his hands over his head. The
motion was an instructive one, for he
did not doubt that he would be blown
into the tiniest fragments And the
volume of the exploding dynamite
seemed to fill the shaft. Above it rang
out Sophie's shrill screams.
Stepan was coming back to con.
seriousness. Somebody's woman-was
screaming. Sophie had got her gag
free from her mouth, and with her
cries there stole into Stepans mind
the realization that neither of them
was dead.
"Sophie!' he gasped.
Slowly the dust settled down. Ste
pan saw the girl peering through the
thick cloud; she looked toward the
rock where Tozan had stood and stood
no longer
That was the moment when the res.
cue party descended the shaft in the
alternate cage. But it was not for
several days that Stepan understood
what had happened
They told him that day, when Sophie |
and he were married-quietly, not as
is the Galician custom, with dance and
drinking Sophie insisted it was a |
but Stepan understood read.
lily.
You see," said the mine engineer,
Tozaa's theory was we'll enough. He |
knew 1t jibed with gravitation. but he
didn't stop to realize that the earth |
Is moving all the while. If you drop |
anything down a half-mile shaft, Ste.
pan, it'll hit the east wall en- route, in.
stead of the bottom. That's where To. |
ian got his"