Evening star., 1927-05-22
Grope Blndly in Cavern of Cumberland Mountains

having seen anything quite so beauti-
full, so marvellous
cigarette in the process. AT last he
Austin seemed to he In deep
thought. consuming cigarette after
spoke, asking q question that struck
me as being quite foolish I'm the Cir
cumstances.
What time is it?" he asked.
Ten minutes past g" / Informed
him. y..- .,. ,
'"That would be afternoon" unused
my companion. I'm six hours it will
be dark enough for lights UP there"
what do you mean to do?'
uueried, for I didn't understand the
drift Of his remark.
We'll short circuit the line and give
t. folks u. above something TO 90
and something to think about. If they
need ANYTHING more to worry them,
replied Austin. You see, l attached
this cord to the service line Leading
from the plant to the house. When 1t
gets dark they'll turn on the light up
there. At the same time we snail be
busy. I'll unscrew the bulb here. so
as not to risk blowing the filament,
and then, with the edge Of my POCKET
knife I'll cut through the insulation
and short circuit the line. That will
blow out the fuse in the kitchen and
| all the lights will be extinguiShed. TO
make sure I've blown the fuse. III
screw the lamp back. If it lights,
there's been no short circuit. III 1t
doesn't, there has been.
after a few minutes, IL the fuse
has blown. they'll put in another fuse
and our light will glow again Then
well repeat the performance, and
| finally Bill, or whoever is seeing to
the trouble, will start to investigate
and eventually come across our tenn
| porary line.
"That will he traced to the hole
above our heads and then--well, then
our Job is to .rivet attention on that
| light-cord and keep IT jerking.
This plan looked so feasible to me
/ that I laughed like a child. To my
mind the miracle had already been
| accomplished.
'"I can hardly wait for nightfall."
I cried. but what with smoking and
looking after the half-uncOnscoius
| Westover. the hours passed In slow
but certain procession.
At last my companion rose. opened
his pocketknife and unscrewed the
bulb, plunging the cavern into instant
and complete darkness. A brief pause
and then heard Austin's voice.
! "She's blown" he cried. I've screwed
4
light Sit tight"
Ten minutes. perhaps. went by; then
the bulb blazed up again. s..
Number one"' laughed our host. az
though he were playing good joke
on some one "we,ll give them 10
minutes and then try again"
| y y 4 X
! EOR two hours we continued the
process and then. satisfied that
| we had done enough to arouse inter
est and inquiry above, we settled down
to wait, literally counting the minutes.
But these merged into hours-hours
during which Austin occasionally
| yanked gently on the line. Suddenly
he released his hold upon 1t.
"If nothing happens i'm the next half
hour" he said. I'll start blowing fuses
| again."
But there was no need. Not quite
half an hour had gone by when the
light suddenly bobbed up and down.
Austin Immediately seized the line,
with an exulting cry and jerked it Wig
orously.
Hello. up there" he yelled. in a
! voice that aroused the echoes as they
had never been aroused ebfore.
/ At last, when quiet was restored,
tere came a faint cry from above.
who is it?''
your dad and the rest of us"
| shouted Austin. Send down a line
| with some food and candles"
More echoes. Then
How can we get to you?"
i "Send down the line"
"All right. Walt" -.3 e's.~y- .-t
The interval seemed interminable
before we saw an object descending
out Of the gloom--a bundle attached
to a cord. Meanwhile Austin had
scribbled a note: Follow the chart
and bring a stretcher and some bran.
dy." This he folded and attached to
the end of the cord. from which he
| had removed the bundle.
F Pull awayr' he shouted. Another
| interval during which the cord and
its message passed upward and out
/ of sight. Then came Bills cry: "AlI
! right! Stand fastr'
! Young Austin and the servants
finally reached us, and we Immediately
made our way back, the stretcher on
which Westover was borne being
dragged by means of ropes-not with.
out much difficulty-through the low,
| narrow passage along which we had
crawled when we first entered.
fCopyright. 1927