The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-11-25
The The Black Box Of Silence

was continued on level.
After the first few steps he realized
that he was no longer in the open.
The air was dank, and his footsteps,
and those of his captors, echoed hol-
lowiy as II in cavern. Lands count
ed his steps, to one hundred, two
hundred, three and still more before
he was halted.
There was click Of lock and a
creaking of rusty hinges. Then the
man who had hold of him gave him a
shove that made him stumble and fall
headlong, the rusty hinges creaked
again, and he was alone.
Satisfied, after moment or two,
that he was no longer in danger of
being knitted, he rolled over and began
to work at his knotted wrists. His
fingers, trained to the manipulation
of delicate mechanisms, soon got the
twisted bandanna manacle united.
Then he tore the bandage from his
eyes-only to find that he was still
sightless; plunged in darkness almost
thick enough to be felt,
Getting upon his feet, he began to
explore his surroundings by the sense
Of touch. Cautious groupings proved
that he was in an underground pas
sage of some sort Before he had
gone very far his fingers told him that
he was not in a natural cavern. The
wall at his left was shattered and
broken, and once his touch fell upon
a smooth half groove in the stone,
marking the path of drill. This
identified the passage as drift in
mine; an abandoned mine, he assumed,
since the silence was not broken by
any sound of activity. Stumbling on,
he found the passage beginning to as
cend, and seventy-nine counted PAGES
up the incline brought him to a place
where the drift forked.
Taking the left-hand passage, he
was stopped within a hundred PAGES
by wall of rock extending all across
the passage. Turning back, he tried
the right-hand drift. This led him
into maze of branchings and cross
drifts in which he soon lost every
vestige Of the sense of direction.
Weary, and with his head still ach-
ing from the blow given him by the
assaulting auto, he was about to sit
down on pile of broken stone to rest
when his guiding hand on the wall
came in contact with smooth, cylin-
drical object wedged in crevice.
Fingertips answering for eyes, he
knew at once that what he had found
was a miners candle, and with shak-
ing hands he searched his pockets for
matches. He found a familiar little
card of safety matches, and the reac-
ton from despair to hope renewed
made him dizzy.
There were only seven, and with
miserly care he struck one and held
the flame to the candle wick.
With the candle held high he sur
veyed his surroundings. Two other
passages came into the one in which
he was standing. On every side there
was ample evidence that the workings
were very ancient, and that they had
been long abandoned.
No longer obliged to grope in dark
ness, he plunged haphazard into one
of the four passages and was again in
volved in q maze that seemed to have
no end-and offered no outlet. Leg
weary finally, he was about to stop
and rest when he heard sounds that
he could compare to nothing but the
scbs of human being in distress.
Unable to determine from which of
the confusing passages the sounds
were coming, he found it at last by
the trail-and-error method. At the
foot of the steep incline down which
he slid, digging his heels in and clutch
ing for hand-holds, the Pickering light
of the candle revealed the figure of
woman. She was sitting on the floor
of the passage with her back to the
wall, and she was crying. Quickly he
recognized her and ran to kneel be-
side her. Betty" he gasped. "What
under heaven are you doing heref Tell
me. what's happened? How did you
get into this chaotic place."
She pointed, and, following her ges-
ture, he saw mine bucket standing
at the end of the passage, with a rope
attached which disappeared upward
in chimney-like shaft.
THAT is the way l came" she said,
II was lowered in that bucket from
somewhere up above. I'm glad
couldn't see what they were doing
with me-"
"You couldn't see? Were you blind
folded, too?"
'Yes; were your"
81 was, indeed" Then, you're not
afraid of the dark, are your"
"No-not when I can reach out and
touch somebody that I know"
"All right; I'll blow the candle out
and save it. It's the only one there
is" And with the return of the pitchy
darkness. 'Now, tell me all about It,"
you'll hardly believe me when 1
do, Owen. You knew that Wally and
/ had dinner with the Smiths at Hill
crest, didn't your"
"Yes; Wally got me on the phone at
the hotel and told me-"
"Woll. Ua loft ahout nina o,olool>