Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 408 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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On a sudden impulse she shrieked at the top of her voice: “a Hel 1"? The effect was terrifying—stupefying! It was as if her wild cry had filled the whole world— as if a thousand fiends shrieked the word back into her ears! She cowered to the ground, quivering in every nerve. ‘* And, oh, God! Iam blind! blind!” That was the especial terror of it. She could not see the danger that menaced her. But continued olsservation impressed her with the dead stillness of the air, which equaled the silence. It was not the freeair of heaven, which always has some motion, so that the cheek can feel a faint coolness, Then flashed upon her a revelation which caused her heart to leap with a thrill of delight such as she had never before experienced. ‘‘T am not blind! no! no! am not blind! Thank God! I shall live to see again the blue sky and the green fields and the golden sun- shine!” And with a wild sob of ecstasy she scooped up a handful of sand, leaped to her feet, and threw it into the air. Then she uttered a scream of delight. “Tt struck! it struck! | heard it distinctly!” To make assurance doubly sure, she threw several handfuls more, crying as she did so; ‘‘No! no! Lam not blind! The rock extends overhead! Iam underground! Lamina cave! That accounts for this rayless darkness! Oh! I shall see! I shall see!” She had been in caves before, thinking it great sport to explore them with candles, shrinking at each step with fear, though assured by her companions that a few steps more would fetch them to the end, when they could turn about and g° back to the renewed beauty of the sunlit world. ‘* Even in the darkness I have only to follow along the wall,” she assured hersolt. *“ If one way does not lead out, the other will. So lam perfectly safe.” She now hastened, moving as rapidly as she dared, with the necessary caution to avoid striking against some obstruction. ‘‘ When [ come to where I can go no further, I shall know that Iam in the wrong direction, and can turn back,” she said, striving to thus fortify her courage. So she groped forward through numberless windings, until the roof drop] so that she could no longer walk erect. | ‘“Yes! yes!” she panted; “‘ this is what I ex- ted. ere is no use in going any further in that direction. That is the end of the cave. Now I have only to follow the wall back. Isup- pose I was near the entrance when [ set out, and taking the wrong direction, have been walking away from it ever since, Of course I couldn't have been far from the mouth.” This reflection started a new train of thought. ‘* But how did I get in here at all, I wonder?” But that question opened up such a dark vista of uncertainty that she fate to explore it. ‘*One thing at a time,” she said, trying to laugh. ‘‘ When I find my way out, it will be time enough to ascertain how I got in.” She groped on and on for what seemed to her to be hours, though she assured herself again and again that of course that was an illusion born of anxiety—that it was, in fact, only minutes. Then it occurred to her that she ought to try to recall the irregularities of the way, to assure herself that she was retracing the path she had come. ‘And here I am going back with my left hand to the wall,as I came. That is to say, I am following the opposite side. How thought- less!” And yet it sprung from the natural desire to have the right hand free to grope with, while using the left hand as a guide, which only re- | quired to be kept in contact with the wall. (ee ry and of approaching the irre a < *. 1a ae ‘ ¥, Bh « oa ‘ry ae t yt ~* *, bd 4 + ~~ wy. ars * 4 - * * « r * and using both hands. _._ “It seems to be rougher,” she m With quickening heart, she immediately cross- ed over. And now rose a treacherous play of the imag- ination. One moment she thought that she had come upon some remembered landmark, but the next all seemed strange. _ “Tt is the strangeness of using my right hand, rities from the te direction,” she said, hurrying forward, . Then she turned her attention to the retin u then it was broken in places.” Presently it occurred to her to turn round and re 7 *4¢ in the opposite direction. Little Leather-Breeches. ‘*T need go but a few steps,” she said aloud, feeling a growing terror at the thought of los- ing a moment. ‘‘It will relieve me of this awful uncertainty. I cannot endure it another moment! O-o-oh—” It was a quavering moan of terror; but she broke it off. ‘** No! no!” she whispered to herself, ‘‘ I must not yield!—I must be calm! The danger is in losing presence of mind and selfrcontro], I will be collected!” She struggled heroically against the terror that was bearing down upon her, threatening to destroy all power of rational thought. With quaking knees she groped a few steps her trembling hands feeling every inequality of the rocky wall. ‘Yes! yes!” she said, *‘ 1 recall this crevice. I remember that it hurt my finger when it slip- ped into it.” But the fact was, her fevered imagination was beginning to people the darkness with undefined shapes of horror. The place where the wall had dropped until it touched her head seemed to be ag toward her like a living thing! ‘Yes! yes!” she whispered, hoarsely and turning, hurried so precipitately that she stum- bled and hurt herself, yet kept on with increas- ing eagerness, Presently she ran against an abrupt wall. It was another terminus. ‘* This is the real end of the cave!” she said to herself, breathlessly. ‘‘ Where the roof shut down must have been the opening. I should have gone as far as possible before turning back. But it is not too late yet. I can return.” She hurried back, now stumbling and run- ning against projections, yet on and on, heedless of the cruel bruises she received. For a little while she would follow one wall and then cross over to the other, with a fickle- ness of purpose which came of growing confu- sion. In one of these passages she found herself in an open eo hen everything seemed to whirl round, and she lest all .sense of direction, and groped about aimlessly. Then she cried aloud for help until the weird echoes frightened her “to silence. But the sounds did not die with her voice. The silences thus waked gave back fiendish, chuckl- ing laughter. Jorror froze the blood in her veins. She fled blindly, madly. Sie rushed against a wall, and fell, stunned and bleeding. She gathered herself up, and with her head spinning round and her knees tottering dragged herself on! on! on! whither she knew not. So, overcome with terror and exhaustion, she sunk to the ground and lay unconscious. From her swoon she passed directly into a profound sleep. When exhausted nature had thus recuperated, she woke slowly, feeling chilled and stiff and sore. She lay utterly hopeless, until her idly-roving — chanced to range directly above her ead, There she saw what thrilled her to her heart’s core—a gleam of light! a ray of heaven’s glad sunshine! She sprung to her feet, and shrieked: ** Help! help! help! oh, help! Is there none of God’s free creatures within the reach of my voice? Help! help! help!—in the name of heaven, help!” But even as she appealed to it, extending her arms in wild supplication, that faint, far-off beacon was blot ted out. “Tt was a delusion! I am going mad!” she cried, clasping her head in her hands. Then the chamber, in the center of which she had fallen and now steod despairing, echoed with a wild unnatural] laugh. ‘*Ha! ha! ha-a-a-ah! ha! ha! So you are there, are you? Come up, you little devils! come up! come up! Ive been waiting for you and trying tospy you out for years and years! Are you there? Come up and show yourselves! Nobody’ll harm you!” ‘““T’m mad! I’m mad!” breathed the poor gir], her cup of misery now full. CHAPTER VII. A VOICE IN THE DARK. Bor there was no escaping from the impor- tunity of the voice which rung in her ears, gc say, brownies, ghouls, hobgoblins, elves, fairies, whoever and whatever you are, you needn’t be afraid of me. I’ve always had a fancy for you, and I wouldn’t mind an exchange of civilities, all in a friendly way, if you are ee) Ha! ha! I'm an odd Dick, myself; <o you needn’t stand on ceremony with me.” he bewildered girl brushed her hand across her brow, listening as the voice rattled on. It sounded strange and muffled, and was +o multiplied by the echoes that it defied every ef- fort to determine where it came from, though she turned her head in different directions. Still, that it spoke intelligibly gave ita cer- tain human quality; and when it ceased she called tremulously: ‘‘Is it a fellow-creature that is addressing me?” ‘‘Ha! ha! ha-a-a-ah! ha! ha!” it shrieked, so wildly that the frightened girl cowered and shuddered as she listened. ‘‘ That’s a good one! Ha! ha! ha-a-a-ah! ha! ha! A fellow-creature! I should say not! I’m about fourteen times as tall as you are, and weigh at least a hundred times as much. I say! do you know that | eat more beef every day for dinner than your whole body would make? But then you needn't be afraid of me. [’m not hungry just now, Ha! ha! ha! ha! But there! that’s chaff. If you only knew it, ’'m the best friend you little folks have got. And I’m a right joy fellow when you once come to know me. agreeable. on’t you let me see you? Do you livedown there without any light?” ‘Surely, surely this is delirium!” moaned oor Belle. ‘* But my strait is so desperate that gore not lose the most unpromising hope of succor. ‘* Who are you?” she asked aloud. ‘‘T’'m the modern Rip Van Winkle! You re- member Rip? He hobnobbed with some of your folks years ago. But he wasn’t a jollier fellow thanlam! Just try me! Won't you come up and let me see you?” “God knows I cannot escape! sighed poor Belle. ‘‘Can’t escape? Why, what’s the matter? I thought you folks could go anywhere you want- ed to—down into the ground, or up into the air, just for the wishing. What can’t you escape from?” ‘‘ Prom this living tomb!” ‘‘Oh! yowre ina tomb, are you? Well, that’s queer! Do you bury your folks alive? We bury our folks that way sometimes. Ha! ha! But then it’s a bad way to plant ’em, so we try not to, asarule. You see, they can’t come up, like carrots and such, and they don’t like tostey down! That’s a matter of taste, though. Do ou know?—I fancy I shouldn’t mind being uuried alive. But I'd want a trap-door, so that I could come up o’ nights and skirmish around in the church-yard, and make folks’s hair rise! Wouldn't that be a rig torun? But, say! you don’t seem to enjoy that sort of thing, do yon? I wish I could help you out. I like to make everybody comfortable, I do. Oh! ma right ood fellow, as I told you, when you come to snow me!” ‘Oh! can you not help me? Iam lost in this horrible place! If you would but lead me once more to the light of the sun, I would give you a life-long gratitude!” ‘Well, thatis queer! Ain’t all of your folks down there with you?” ‘My folks? How should they be? Ob, no!— I am entirely alone!” ‘They’ve gone off and left’ you, have they? Well, that just shows! 1 reckon all mortals are pretty much alike, though I did think that no- thing could quite equal the scalawags we have on top of the earth! I say!—tI can’t do much for you myself. I’m a no-account fellow with a crick in my cranium, so they say. But I know a young chap that’s greased lightning on things that nobody else can do; and if you don’t mind waiting a bit, [ll have him here in two jerks of a lamb’s tail. He'll fetch you through, you may depend!” na clear, rational moment Belle would have known that this was human help, and would have sent word to her friends. But in her half- delirious state she was like one in a dream, who is not surprised at meeting the weird creations of superstitious fancy. ‘Oh! if you can send one to my aid,” she sighed, ‘‘ I will be ever grateful to you.” ‘ Allright! Here goes! Keep your heart up until I get back! Ha! ha! ha—a—a—ah! ha! ha! That’sa lone, thatis! I wonder what the little cuss is like, anyway!” The concluding sentences did not reach Belle’s ears. The last she heard was the dying away of the demoniac laughter. The voice did not seem to recede in the corri- dors of the cave, but ceased as if it vanished out of the air close to her. So once more she told herself that it was a cheat of the imagination, “Tt cannot be that there are spirits otherthan © 4 : ~ np ' . Oe , . ay Me. si! ; ta § ‘Ae ay y , a als s¢: oe) "* ‘2 So . : Ls ~~ | ie Pim 8 , a 4 . (i. 3 t,t 7 Oy — +“ © 1 books.com