Year: 1862

rapid strokes Of the pump which wa!
driving it into the boilerl Ny whole
condition-no, not all Of itr-not yet
my present condition flashed with new
horror upon me. But did not again
swoon. The choking sensation which
had made me faint when 1 first diseov.
cred how ] was entombed, gave way to
livelier, though less overpowering
emotion. l shrieked, even as l started
from my slumber. The previous dis
covery of the closed aperture, with the
instant oblivion that followed, seemed
only part of my dream, and I threw
my arms about and looked eagerly fol
the opening by which 1 had entered
the horrid place-yes. looked for it,
and felt for it. though it was terrible
conviction that it was closed--a second
time brought home to me--that promp'
ted my frenzied cry. Every sense
seemed to have ten-fold acuteness, yet
not one TO act in unison with another.
l shrieked again and again-imploring-
ly, desperately, savagely. / filed the
hollow chamber with my cries, till its
iron wall seemed to tingle around me.
The dull strokes of the sccursed pump
seemed only to mock at while they
desdened my screams.


"At last / gave myself up. 1t is the
struggle against fate which frenzies
the mind. We cease to fear when we
cease to hope. gave myself up, and
then l grew calm!


al was resigned to die-resigned
even to my mode of death. 1t was not,
] thought, so very new, after all, as to
awaken unwonted horror in a man.
Thousands have been sunk to the bot
tom of the ocean shut up in the holds
of vessels-beating themselves against
the battened hatches-dragged down
from the upper world sbrieking. not
for life, but for death only beneath the
eve and amid the breath Of heaven
Thousands have endured that appalling
kind of suffocation. | would die only
as many better man had died before
me. l could meet such death. /
said SOL thought SOL felt so-felt
so, l mean, for minute or more-ten
minutes, it may have been--or but an
instant of time. / know not, nor does
it matter, if | could compute it. There
,cos a time, then, when l was resigned
10 my fate. But, good God! was l re-
signed to it in the shape in which it
came next TO appal? Stranger. I felt
that water growing hot about nv limbs,
though it was but mid-leg deep. |
felt it, and in the same moment heard
the roar of the furnace that was to
turn it into steam before it could get
deep enough to drown onel


"You shudder--it was hideous.-
But did l shrink and shrivel, and crum-
BILE down upon that horrid agony of
fear? No! though my brain swan and
the ife-blood that curdled at my heart
seemed about TO stagnate there forever,
still l knewI l was too hoarse--too
hopeles. from my previous efforts. to
cry out more. But l struck-feebly
at first, and then strongly--with my
clenched fist against the sides of the
boiler. There were people moving
near who must hear my blows! Could
1 not hear the grating of chains, the
shutting of feet, the very rustic Of a
rope--hear them all, within few inch
es of me? 1 did-but the gurgling
water that was growing hotter and hot
ter around my extremities. made more
noise within the steaming caldron than
did my frenzied blows against its sides.


"Latterly 1 had not changed my po-
sition, but now the growing heat of the
water made me plash to and fro; lifting
myself wholly out of it was impossible,
but could not remain quiet. l STUN
bled upon something--it was a mallet!
chance tool the smith bad left there
by accident. With what wild Joy did
l seize it--with what renewed conf
dence did I now deal my first blows
with it against the walls of my prison.
But scarce had l intermitted them for
a moment when heard the clang ol
the iron door as the fireman flung II
wide to feed the flames that were to
torture me. Ny knocking was unhesrdr
though ] could hear him toss the sticks
into the furnace beneath me, and drive
to the door when his internal oven was
fully crammed.


Had l yet hope? had. but i


rose in my mind side by side with the


fear that might become the agent o


preparing myself a more frightfu


death. Yesl when l thought of tina


furnace with its fresh-fed flames curl


ing beneath the iron on which stood


a more frightful death even than tha
Of being boiled slivel Had l discov
cred that mallet but short time soon
er-but no matter, l would by its ali


resort to the only expedient now left
at was this: remembered havin!
marling spike in my pocket, and II
! less time than have taken in hintinI
at the consequences of thus using IT
l had made an impression on the side
of the boiler, and soon succeeded i
driving it through. The water gushe'
through the aperture-would they Sc
it? No; the jet could only play agains
a wooden partition which must hide
from view, and it must trickle down up
on the decks before the leakage woul'
be discovered. Should / drive anoth
er hole TO make that leakage greater
Why, the water within seemed alread