Year: 1866

his eyes, he espied what seemed to him
10 be an abrasion of the rope by which
he was being drawn up. Startled by
this appearance, he fixed his ewes on a
portion OF the rope which had attracted
his attention, and saw distinctly that the
rope was cut few feet above his head,
just out of reach ofhs hand. His terror
at this discovery was such that he near.
ly tainted. Rousing himself, by force of
will, from the stupor Of suspension, winch
had SO nearly overcome him, he COMPEL.
ed lsimselfto calnmcss and set himself
again to examine the rope. Perhaps he
was mistaken; he would look again.
But no /; h. was not mistaken. The rope
lad rubbed against some projection of
The rocky waNs which hemmcd him in,
and its strands We're untwisting slowly
but visibly. ut the injured point the
thickness Of the massive cable was al.
ready reduced to less than an inch.


The fortunate man felt that his
doom was sealed the conviction of
the utter hopelessness of his position
chilled him to the very marrow of his


bones. He tried to call out, but his
tongue seemed frozen. Moreover, he
felt that, ifhe should make himself
heard, (Which was totally impossible,
as he was now half way up,) 10 human
aid could reach him. Looking up
wards he could see daylight at the
mouth of the shaft, bright, but dis
tant, like. star. Gazing downwards,
over the edge of the basket, at a
depth that it made him dizzy and sick
to look down to, he could see, like so
many glow worms, the lamps of the
miners And the basket is the mean
time, momte higher and higher
every instant, tho rope cracking audi.
blyunder the increasing strain, Of the
ascent. The unfortunate engineer
saw clearly that there was no posi-
bility of escaping the horrible fate
awaiting him, and could almost count
the seconds that would elapse ere the
breaking of the r'pc must prccipitatc
him into the fearful void below. Such
was the intensity of his anguish that
he. was tempted to abridgc it's duration
by throwing himself down at once, in
stead of awaiting any longer tic incvi--
table instant AS he hesitatcd, long
ing, yet fearing to take the fearful
leap, the basket reached the mouth of
the shaft, IEc was saved |! With a
loud cry he leaped from the basket,
awaking as he, felt once more the solid
earth beneath hiss feet.


The horrible adventure was only a
dream but Nj. C was trembling,
exhausted, bathed in pcrspiration and
incapable Of making " movement or
uttering sound. Aieer time he re-
covered his self command was SO far
as tobe able to ring for help. The
people'of the inn fastened to obey the
summons, but could not at first recog-
nize their customer of the previous
evening, fot his hixuriant raven hair
had become perfectly gray. And,
stranl e. than even this physical evil
dencc o. the violence of tho emotions
he had undergone during his troubled
slumbcrs, there lay upon his bed, and
evidently drawn by his own hand, a
plan of the adjacent mine he was to
visit the following day, but which he
had never seen, and of whose internal
arrangements he Rad no idea and
this plan, so unaccountably produced,
proved, on examination of the mine,
to be absolutely correct in every par-
ticular.


So much for the story vouoiied for.
by one of the five "leading journals"
of this capital ;its explanation I leave
to the ingenuity of your readers.


In A NUT SHELL Gov. jenkins, of