Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1918-02-28

pace yet faster. and they became the
last two Of procession Of turbaned
men, who tramped along winding
tunnel into great mountains womb.
The sound of slippers clicking and
rutching on the rock floor swelled and
died and swelled again as the tunnel
led from cavern into cavern.
In one great cave they came to
every man beat out his torch and
tossed it on heap. After that there
was ledge above the height Of
mans head on either side of the tun-
mel, and along the ledge little oil-burn-
ing lamps were spaced ut measured
intervals. A quarter Of n mile farther
along there We're two sharp turns in
the tunnel, and then ut last sea of
noise and veritable blaze of light.
Part of the noise made King feel
hOmeSick. for out Of the mountains
very womb brayed music-bOX. such
as the old-time carousals made use of
before the days of electricity and
steam. Ii was being worked by mex
pert hands. for the time was some
thing jerky; but 1t was robbed of it's
tinny meanness and even lent majesty
by the hugcness of cavern's roof. as
well as by the crashing. swinging music
1t Observation-Disclosures erful-invented
for lawlcss hours and kingless peO-
pie.
"Marchons !-Citoyens ="
rhn 20 tn
time to it. and the rock shook. They
deployed to left and right into space
so vast that the eye at first refused to
try to measure 1t. 1t was the hollow
core of mountain. flied by the sea-
sound Of Il human crowd and hung with
huge Stnlactites that danced and shift
ed and flung back thousand colors ut
the tlickering light below. Across the
cavern'S farther end for n space Of two
hundred yards the great river rushed.
plunging out of a great fanged gap and
hurrying out Of view down another one.
licking smooth banks on its way with
n hungry sucking sound.
There were little lamps everywhere,
perched on hedges amid the Stalactites,
and they suffused the whole cavern in
golden glow. In the midst of the cav
ern great arena had been left bare,
and thousands of turhaned men squat
ted round 1t In rings. At the end
where the river formed a tangent to
them the rings We're flattened. and at
that point they We're cut into by the
ramp of Il bridge. and by lane left
to connect the bridge with the arena.
platform. about fourteen feet above the
floor. and the broad track thence to
the arena. rs well as all the arenas
boundary. had been marked off by
great earthenwnre lamps. whose greasy
smoke streaked up and was lost by the
wind among the stalactites.
Greek lamps. every one Of 'em!"
King whispered to himself but he
wasted no time just then on trying &c
explain how Greek lamps had ever got
there. There was too much else to
watch and wonder at.
No steps led down from the bridg.
end To the floor: toward the arena II
was blind. But from the bridges far,
Their end across the hurrying water
stairs had been hewn out OF the rock
wall and led up to hole IF twice n
mans height, more than fifty feet
above water level.
On either side Of the bridge end q
passage had been left clear to the
river edge, and nobody seemed to care
to invade 1t. although it was not
marked off in any way. Each passage
was about fifty feet wide and quite
straight. But the space between the
bridge end and the arena and the