Year: 1876

Ioli duu LOSS, 10 gaze NJ Guo Spech Oh Oay
far above me, and groan.


Some one might pass that way and
hear me. The moment this thought
came into my head 1 arose, and leaning
against the wall and looking upward, 1
began shouting. Hour after hour 1 did
nothing but shout. shouted till could
hardly stand. Finally, completely ex-
hausted, 1 fell asleep.


When L awoke it was all dark above,
and said it was now dark-no use of
shouting. When daylight came again
resumed my shouting, and kept it up
until 1 became very hoarse and weak,
when | gave it up as worse than useless.


"I studied all manner of combina-
tions to be made with my two pieces of
ladder, and two or three times lighted
my candle to look at them, but soon
blew it out again, as l saw that they
could not be made any longer than they
actually were. The bit of daylight above
did not reach me, and did me no good
except to let me know when it was day
and when night.


1t is useless to prolong this part of
my story. i soon suffered the pangs of
hunger and thirst. 1t was not hard to
bring myself to crawl to the water and
drink of it, foul as it was, but it was
hard to undertake to eat of the dead ami
mails. Several times / attempted it, but
guve it up, feeling that the time had not
yet arrived.


"I found myself taking maps at all
times of the day and night. On awak-
ening from one of these short maps 1
thought heard something on the bot
tom of the shaft-there was light rat
tling of the little quartz pebbles of bro
ken fragments of rock. L listened for
some time and finally became satisfied
that there was something moving about
IN the shaft. struck match and light
ed my candle, when 1 saw near me q
striped squirrel. l was delighted to
find that had some live thing in the
shaft with me. l advanced and picked
up the little animal, which hardly made
an attempt to escape. AS L held it in
my hands L could feel it's heart beating
so rapidly that the pulsations could not
be counted. Here, thought I, 'are a
en- without loathing.' AS I held the
squirrel in my hand, thinking whether
to kill and eat it then, or to await still
more dire extremity, happened to cast
my eyes upward to the ladders, when,
'now, thought I, 'if this were a carrier
pigeon, O sparrow, or a bird of any kind,
it might be the means of saving me-
Then it occurred to me that / might
make better use of the squirrel than
to eat it.


"Taking out my memorandum book
l wrote the note you found on your cab
in floor, and wrapped it about the body
of the squirrel, tying it there with bit
of thread drawn from my handkerchief
and wound many times round tie little
animal. I then tossed it up to the plat
form which 1 longed SO much to reach.
I saw it land on the platform, and then
saw it make its way of up the first lad
der above, after which 1 saw nothing
more of it. L prayed most earnestly
that something might come of this silly
looking experiment, then fell asleep,
and awoke and prayed again.


"Al seemed of no use, however, and
1 was on the point of trying once more
co eat one of the disgusting dead squir-
rels in the shaft, when voice-its seemed
from heaven-said Jacob, are you
there2" and you came and found me-"


call is now clear as day." said L.
"The squirrel with your note tied upon
his body wandered down the side of the
mountain, was seen by my old cat
'Chispa the greatest hunter in the
State-who pounced upon him and
brought him home to show him to me
fooled with him about tho cabin and
finally killed him and began eating him,
when the note was dislodged and fell
upon tho floor, where it was found by
me. Yes, and old Chispa' even bad
the sense TO bring me the remains of tho
squirrel when he found me wondering
about the note-as much as to say L
found it stuck upon this fellow"


" Why, that's the simplest thing in
tho world, after ALL" said Jacob
Pritchard, and all hands said " 1t is no
mystery, aftcr all.