The All-Story, March 1914 — page 180: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE DEVIL AND DR. FOSTER. Holding the spading-fork couchant with his right hand, Sam = groped through his pockets with the other and produced a sulfur-dipped match. “Take care it don't go out. It’s the only one I got,” he said. - Ike, heeding the request, struck the match on his overalls and carefully guarded the slender blue flame which ‘sprang into existence. * Still cautious, he sank to Ins knees and groped round for the lantern. In Hhe dim illumination of the brimstone his sinister features were more than ‘ordinarily awesome. ~ “ Be careful or you'll have the whole place afire!* cried Sam, observing that he was holding the match close to the floor of the cavern. * He spoke too late. The vapors from the spilled kerosene had already caught and were playing fitfully back and forth across the soaked earth, like heat- lightning, until at length they focused on a little pool of the illuminant which had collected in a cuplike depression and sprang up more brightly. - From this nucleus the fire spread in every direction. It gave out a heat which scorched Satn’s sunburnt face, and its odor was suffocating. “T told you you'd do that!” cried Sam. ‘“ Right in the door, too. Now, how are we going to get out?” But this, it appeared, was an easy one for Ike. He had found the lantern, unscrewed the cap of the reservoir, and with the utmost nonchalance, while Sam looked on in horror, scooped up in his bare palm as much of the still blazing kerosene as remained unburned at the bottom of the little pool and let it dribble into the lantern. ~ Then, kneeling in the very midst of the flame-spread area, he held the lantern wick where it could ignite. “Youll catch fire! screamed Sam. “Youll be burned to death! Look out there!“ as the fire lighted on a spot of ffresh fuel and shot up higher. “Pshaw, that's nothing! lve got fire instirance.” Ike returned composed- ly. “Now PI put them out.” 653 He did this by lying down and rolling to and ire on the ground, while Sam looked on, frozen with horror. ‘J‘he boy seemed actually to revel in the flaines which played round hin, licking his face and hands and body caressing- ly. In a couple of minutes the cave was again reduced for light to the lan- terns feeble glow. “Suffermg cats and jumping toads!” Sam murmured, the cold per- spiration standing out on his face. “Tf that don’t beat all Tunket!” The boy, apparently unconscious that he had accomplished anything extraor- dinary, rose to his feet and turned to- ward Sam. “ Go ahead and dig if you want to,” he said. “I dont care.” At a loss for comment in the pres- ence of a sight so terrible, Sam returned to the task of uncovering the treasure- chest. But his spade stopped in mid air. “Where's the hole?” he demanded. “T can’t find the hole.” * Ain't it right there?’ Ike asked. “No, it— Say, bring the lantern over here, can’t you? I want to see.” Ike obediently did as he was told. Even with the lantern’s aid Sam was unable to find the spot where he had been digging. He looked this way and that. covering finally the entire floor of the subterranean chamber, without lighting on what he was looking for. He turned suspiciously to [ke once more. “ Say. where’s that hole?” he asked. “ You're playing tricks on me to-night, and now youve gone and swiped that hole when I was looking the other way. What have vou done with it?” “TI ain't done nothing—honest, I ain’t,” the boy whimpered. “ Couldn't you see me all the time? How do I know where the old hole 1s?” Sam renewed his search, The floor of the cave showed no evidence that it had ever been disturbed. He tried it here and there with the tines of the fork; it was all equally hard, damp, and moldy. At length he gavedtuap.. UN SoG@