Year: 1877

The ringing sound that came from Il
blackened smithy told that steel was
shifting steel, and the smith who swung
the pondrous hammer was a man of no
common muscle


He was young and remarkably hand
some; but there was an evil lurking in
his coal black eyes which would have
repulsed the close observer, The light
ofhis forge fire render ghostly the objects
in the remote corners of the shop; but it
fell brightly upon the strange looking
piece ofsteel which he was hammering.


1t resembled the jaws of an immense
trap, strong enough to hold a bear, and
the wonder was that the strength of a
man could prepare it for its prey. If
any man in Middleton could control
such trap, it was the man whose hands
were fashioning it.


For a long time David Thrall had
been work of nights, with his shop bar
red to visitors, and the clang- clang-
clang Of his hammer had sounded in the
furthest corners of the village. lie was
man ofstrong passions, the first to re-
sent an insult to friend, and the last to
give up an argument when he found
logic against him.


No person had bothered him while he
swung the hammer over the terrible
steel trap he was making. 1t is true a
few boys looked IN at the window at the
Inauguration of his work, but his mad
dening threats against them had kept
the prying urchins away.
Il told her that she would never laugh
at my love and live to boast of it to an
other man. David Thrall said aloud,
one night, as he paused to wipe great
drops of perspiration from his brow.


@She laughed then, and told me not to
let choler get the best of me, and
thought | would forget it. Forget? new
err and the hammer came down venge
fully upon the glowing steel.


al am making this trap because you
rejected my love, Agnes temple. But
it shall not tear your pretty skin. No
no / would not injure one of your gol-
den hairs; but am going to teach you
that there is one man in Middleton
whose heart cannot be trifled with


Thus he talked to himself, while he
stood over his anvil and swung his ham
mer, whose every blow tolG on his horri-
bic mechanism, and hurried it toward
completion.


That night he finished it. He held it
up in the light of his coal fire and pro-
nounced it perfect, smiled upon it with
a parents pride, and showed that he had
strength sufficient to master its jaws.


"Now, my boy, well try you"


David Thrall put his trapinto sack,
smothered the fire, and left the smithy.


He walked rapidly towards the out
skirts of the village, seen by no one. for
the night was dark and the wind high.


1t was in the fall of the year, and the
yellow leaves of the time fell around him
in a golden shower. But he did not
notice them anymore than to brush an
occasional one from his long beard, be-
grimed like his face with the SCOT of his
shop.


He did not come to a halt until he
reached the iron track that ran over the
road which he was traversing. Middle
ton had not been honored by the steam
cars, which as if to taunt the place, left
it half mile to the west.


David Thrall threw his burden down,
and sigh of relief escaped from him
Then he struck match and looked at
his watch.


IL was eight o'clock.


"He passes here about nine," he NUT
tered. The passenger goes by N ten
then the lightning express.


He spoke.with fendishness almost for
eign to the human heart, and set to
work fastening the strong chain attach
ed to his internal trap to the rails.


He had evidently studied this part Of
his work, for he performed il in the
darkness, and then rested


But the end was not yet


Throwing himself upon the spring he
get the trap, and the terrible jaws were
ready to close upon the victim.
The wind threw leaves over the trap,
as if intent Of aiding the jealous black
smith, and as the clouds skurried west
ward he saw the star CLEANS fall upon
the leaves that covered it.


1t was picturesque place which Da-
yid Thrall had selected for the deed upon
which he had set his heart.


The road was narrow, indeed, not
more than path, which led to Middle
ton and the home of Agnes Temple. He
knew that the man he hated would ira
verse it before dawn, and he knew, too,
that his trap would hold him to the iron
track


1t was revenge almost too terrible to
be recorded.


"Therem exclaimed the smith, as he
removed pace and triumphantly sur
veyed the result OF his nights toll in the
sootv shop. Now let the prey come.
The trap is ready. L wish you a pleas
ant time ofit, Julian Wingfold. To be
plain should like to know how a man
feels between two such jaws


Then he picked up the sack in which