Argosy, Volume XXIII — Index Page, 1897 — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

THE BUNKEL MYSTERY. 725 slumbers of the two prisoners were as profound as though they had been in their downy beds within the palatial walls of their elegant homes. - Darkness covered the lake and the island, and hour after hour passed off into the eternity of the buried past. Not a light was to be seen in the town three miles distant, nor in any farm house on the shore, if there had been any one on Bunkel to see it. The daylight came in the east in a few hours, and the sun rose in all his glory, clear and bright. Events were transpiring in Montoban, and especially in the homes of the two absent boys; but the occupants of the cave slept still. Poddy was the first to wake. He looked at his watch. : ‘‘ Nine o’clock !’’ shouted he, as he sprang from his bed, and shook Tom till he brought him to life again. Dolph and Phin left the boat at the same time. Then they discovered that the grotto was lighted by some opening at the end opposite the entrance. ‘Good morning, young gentlemen,’’ said Poddy, as he politely bowed to them. ‘‘ We shall have breakfast in half an hour; and till that time you can take a walk on the island, if you wish.’’ ‘Thank you, sir,’’ replied both of them. They left the cave when Tom had removed the trees, and returned at the time indicated. Poddy was at work over a fire at the farther end of the cave ; but it did not burn well, and the coffee was not ready till half past ten. While they were at the meal, seated on the platform which served asa bed, Poddy suddenly commanded silence. They obeyed, and then they heard the sound of voices. CHAPTER XXIII.—-TuHincs Look STRANGE TO MR. ROBLOCK. MONTOBAN slept as soundly as the weary occupants of the grotto of Bunkel Island. The slumbers of the magnates were as deep as those of the rest of the inhabitants, and the fact that the two dams had been destroyed did not keep them awake. Neither of the presidents and neither of the cashiers of the two banks had any suspicion that the vaults containing their treasures had been visited during the night. At an early hour of the morning the milkmen went their rounds, the carriers distributed the morning paper, and everything went on as usual in the town. The smoke was pouring out of the tall chimney on the engine house of the lower mill ; at seven o’clock the work people went to their usual places and the machinery was started at the appointed time. Hundreds of early risers went to the river to see by the light of day the havoc made by the waters the evening before. At the upper dam, the employees had nothing to do but to look at the ruins of the dam and watch the stream in its new channels. ‘The folly of the Onongo magnate had subjected them to an enforced idleness that might last a day or a week. Mr. Barkpool slept like a log as long as the fumes of the whisky he had drunk stupefied him. It was daylight when they left him, and he woke with a dry throat and dn unsteady head. He drank a great deal of cold water from the ice pitcher, and then went out to see the wreck of the dam. The aD) CONNIE NOOKS,(eC)