The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1923-07-26
ON SILENT GUARD
Explanation of Mysterious Figure
in Grecian Cave.
II Surmise Is Correct, Grim Custodian
of Treasure Was Most Cum
ningly Devised.

Always the Inrdclan peaShnt Is
stirred to tell you stories of caves. I
once employed a queer m~an-of-all-
trades as a foreman of excavation. He
was a Thracian Greek from Varna, on
the Black sea, whence he had been
driven by Bulgarians into Greece. He
had mostly been a sailor on the Pontic
coasts, but he had been to many lands
and knew Asia Minor well.
Il could tell you Il queer story" he
said to me n evening in true sailor
fashion, that a farmer once told me
in a village near Smyrna" He lit his
pipe (only sailormen among Greeks
take to pipes), and started his story
after we had finished II digging and
were taking our evening coffee by our
tents. This farmer went once far
Inland into the hills. He found the
entrance to "A deep cave and. with a
certain hesitation, went in. He found
himself in a well-cut tunnel that led
straight into the rock. After n time
he turned a corner and saw a red
glimmer of flame.
Greatly alarmed, he moved on very
quietly and cautiously. Again he
rounded "A bend and saw, at the end OF
n straight stretch a blaze of fire com
ing out from a natural vent in the
rock. He stopped motionless, for there
in front of the flame, was seated the
figure of a man perfectly still. He
crept on cautiously. Suddenly, as he
advanced, the figure rose. rigidly, to
its feet, swung round and faced him.
He could not see its face, for II was
against the light. He took n more
nervous step forward and, as he did
so, the rigid figure lifted in both its
hands a huge hammer, still facing
him lie stepped back, and as he did
so the figure lowered the hammer. He
stepped back n more step, and the
figure sat down again. Less nervous,
he advanced again.
A he did so the figure rose once
more, silent and rigid. He made one
more step, and II lifted It's hammer
menacingly once more. Again he
withdrew, and the figure lowered its
hammer and sat down. Now he was
thoroughly alarmed and made his wal
quickly out of the tunnel"
"Did he find out who the man was?"
| asked.
"No," replied my sailorman, che did
not, neither did he try. But my opin.
Ion is" he continued, that there was
a vast treasure buried in that cave.
and the owner had made a mechanical!
figure which worked automatically by
some mechanism that operated from
the floor. AS you went in You trod
upon the levers and the figure rose TO
It's feet. You went further, and Il
lifted It's hammer. If that farmer had
taken one step more he would have
been a dead man. The fire was a
natural vent of gas that was never
~quenched. There are many such away
back in Asia Minor and Persia" lie
paused, as ancient mariners always
pause after they have reached their
finest effect "You would have liked
to eXcavate that cave" he said, sim.
ply.
/ often wonder what element of
truth was at the bottom of that story
All n can he certain of Is that the
Smyrniot farmer left the cavern in a
very great fright. But who Is not
really afraid of caverns in his inmost
heart? We call II "caution": we are
afraid lest the roof fall in and bury
us, lest We disappear down some un.
expected hole. Really, 1t Is the inborn
terror Of the dark that frlghtens us,
perhaps itself born Of the danger that
beset primitive man in caves-caye
lions, cave bears, or some last remnant
OF an earlier. more savage strain OF
man, the prototype Of the ogre of the
fairy story.-Exchange.