Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 852 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

“Se 1 N , ‘ ; es ae *) ‘ - a 1 Oe ~ know how I'd do on a rope. 6 | | Deadwood Dick, Jr., at Devil’s Gulch. 5 her whistle,” then strutted off toward the house, the two men again following closely. In the rear of the house was a shanty, built of oak. It was evidently used fur the winter storage of fuel. The door was open and through this door Polly conducted her Lng © ** Pete gone!” she said, perching herself on top of a big dry-goods box, ‘‘ Pete gone— debbil/” with a queer croak, ‘* Well, I reckon ne has gone somewhere very near to where his Majesty hangs out,” said Mose. ‘‘Cast your eyes about you, Harry, and see what you can make out.” The bottom of the shanty was simply earth, there being no other floor. Nor did there appear to be any signs of the mouth of an abandoned shaft in the place, **Polly has made a muss of the lead this time,” said Magic Mose. ‘*Ha-ha! ha!’ croaked the bird, box. Ha-ha-ha!” ‘*Oh, that’s the case is it?” and at once the big box was lifted aside disclosing a big barrel-sized opening, that appeared toextend down into the very bowels of the earth. Where it went to, the two men could. not conceive, Did it lead into a subterranean cavern, or a mine? They must know, that was certain. **Now, the next thing is a rope,” said Mose, ‘‘ but where will we get it?” ‘*T think I can find just what we need,” replied Harry, ‘‘over at Miller’s, You wait here. It won’t take me long.” Harry set off in search of the rope. In the mean time, Dick held Poll over the ‘** Pete in hole. '** Pete down there, Poll?” he asked. ‘*Ha-ha-ha! Pete gone debbil!” was the answer, which Dick perfectly understood. ‘* All right!” returned Mose; ‘‘ you go deb- ble too; tell Pete, Mose is coming!” and with no he dropped Poll into the darkness of the well. The bird did not return, and it only re- mained for Mose to sit on the box and await the arrival of Harry Harris. The latter came, with the rope, in about half an hour, ‘‘T hada deuce of atime finding it,” he said, ‘‘and a deuce of a time in getting back here.” ‘* How so?” : ‘‘The men are beginning to recover from their drunk, and are ransacking the town in search of us, and they swear they will string us both up, when they get us.” . ‘‘ Well, they haven't got us, yet!” ‘‘ But, there is no telling how soon they: may have us. But, where is Poll?” **Down the shaft. I dropped her down and she has not returned.” - ‘‘ Well, now we must work lively. Let’us . fasten the rope vi geese, and go down. a I brought my little pocket lantern to light the way.” ‘Good idea, We will need it.” They then set to work. One end of the rope was fastened toa post; the other end was made fast to a piece of rock and drop- ped down the shaft. The stout line was perhaps two hundred feet long, yet it did not appear to reach bottom. ‘IT don’t know about this,” said Harris. “If that rope don’t touch bottom, we may ~ have struck a new route to China, Are you any good on the climb, Dick?” | ‘* Well, I can climb a tree, but I don’t | | I rather think you had better go first. You can probably do better than I. Here isa silver whistle, If everything is all right when you strike bottom, toot the whistle. And if you ain’t so far down but what you can make me hear, shout back and let me know whether you are in Hades or Hong Kong.” _ ‘All right, I guess it is a matter of little difference which, I reckon one place : ; i- “4 A 2 r ae ° $ .-= 2 d - - ‘ » of . ” : , 7 ‘ » ' \ : ER Rat GI ST ae, is about as good asthe other,” the gambler replied. Then seizing the rope, he dropped down into the pit of darkness, taking the lantern with him, fastened to his belt. Thus Magic Mose was able to keep him in view, as he glided down the line, until the light became the veriest speck and finally vanished from his sight, altogether. ** Well, he’s gone,” muttered Mose, ‘‘and from all appearances, he has gone the full length of the rope and dropped off,” for, on testing the rope, he found that it was not taut! ‘‘Well, he must have touched bottom somewhere. But, whether dead or alive is hard to say.” The minutes passed rapidly, but still no report came from the adventurer. oan now began to feel somewhat wor- ried. ‘It’s strange I don’t hear from him,” he said to himself. ‘*I surely could hear him if he was not down more than two hundred feet. If I don’t hear from him pretty soon I will go down myself.” That pretty soon lasted for several min- utes. Then, Mose got tired of waiting. ‘* There must be something the matter!” he decided. ‘‘I can’t wait here any longer, so I reckon I'll go down, too.” His conclusion that he would not longer remain at the shanty was made urgent from the fact that he*had heard an angry mob of people approaching. Had they discovered his and Harry’s pres- ence there? or were they coming after Pete Parrot, to take him out and lynch him? The latter seemed to be the most prob- able theory;-so Mose considered it advisable to ‘‘ git up and git!” Seizing the rope he quickly disappeared in the darkness below. The wall of the shaft was slimy and the damp seemed to Fa through every pore of the body of Magic Mose. But he soon realized that he was near the end of the rope. ; _ What was below him? More space? or water, or rough rocks? There was nothing but inky darkness everywhere, and the air was very oppress- ive. Mose gripped the cord tighter, and descend- ed as slowly as possible, As he glided down, inch by inch, anumber of theories flashed across his mind There must be some other outlet to the place below, other than the narrow shaft or ventilator, as it might prove to be. If there was not some other outlet, how had Mose’s and Pete’s communications reached one another? ps gers by Poll could not have lifted the box off the hole, and re- placed it again? This gave Magic Mose a new confidence, and when he reached the end of the rope, he hesitated but a moment, and then dropped! Down! down! down! It seemed as if he was going to China, surely enough! Then the stop came for he had landed in a pool of water, waist deep, but all around was utter darkness, It was certainly a gloomy outlook for Magic Mose, | CHAPTER VII. THE UNDERGROUND SEA, Just what to do, Mose did not know. The water in which he stood was quite uncom- fortable to remain in for any length of time, as it was of nig temperature! ‘*T reckon ’ll be parboiied, if I remain here!” Mose muttered. ‘‘But what shall I do—how get out—where go? Yes, where am I at?” he muttered with grim humor. He suddenly bethought himself that he had some matches in his side vest pocket. ly make it seem possible that he was in under — \ oe, > ‘magi , If these were dry, he could see his sur- roundings for a short space of time. ‘ and he ignited one, by Scratching it on his hat. By the light this afforded he was able to- see around him. » He found that he was in a subterranean lake or reservoir. The cavern, if such it might be termed, was & mammoth one, apparently, with a high vaulted ceiling. At one side of the cavern, there appeared to bean opening through which waters made their way and evidently found an outlet. Mose’s stock of matches was limited, but would last several minutes, so keeping one after another lighted, he waded toward this opening. As he advanced, the water decreased in warmth, proving that the cavern must be fed by a boiling spring. . On reaching the outlet, Mose found before him a long passage. Entering this, he waded along as fast as possible. The water grew less in depth, and finally ended, altogether, as if sinking into some un- derneath channel, through erevices in the rock. ‘‘Out of the swim, at last!’ Mose mut- tered. ‘‘ And if lam not greatly mistaken, this passage leads to hberty.” He started forward to explore further, and directly on rounding a curve in this under- earth hall, Mose caught a glimmer of light. ahead. : It was not daylight, but a sort of greenish light, of great brilliancy, and seemed some distance away. t the point where Mose first discovered this, the passage began to ascend quite sara, ‘Well, this begins to look interesting, but I’ve got to go careful, There’s no tell- ing what is beyond that green light. The reen-eyed monster may be there, for all I now!’ | The light did not seem to grow any larger, as the detective advanced; and then there was a fluttering sound and what should alight on Mose’s shoulder but Polly! ‘Poor Poll!’ she said, cake. Pete gone!” ** Well, Poll shall have cake and whisk. Go for Pete!” and placing the bird on the ground he pushed her along before him, ‘Go to Pete!” he said. Obeying orders the queer guide strutted n / ‘**Polly want on. ‘* Deliverance is at hand!” thought Mose. A walk of two minutes, brought them to the spot where the green light was. | It proved to be a tiny lantern, hung toa nail that was fastened into the rock. Near it was another shaft, similar to the one that Mose had come down. to some chamber or drift. Mose took the lantern. “This will give some light on the subject, I reckon. Now, Poll, which way?” Poll made no reply, but proceeded to hop up these steps. The steps were hard to climb, but at last Mose and Poll reached the top, where a halt. was made. They were now evidently in a cellar, for cavation were barrels, bottles, and a general stock of household supplies, such as flour, sugar, hams, and so forth. wocden stairway also led upward. cellar of somebody's shebang,” said Mose. | He then set about further investigations. Whose house was it? — Perhaps Sage’s! a5 Considering the distance he had traveled since coming down the shaft, he could hard- . Xx } , 4 i a Examinatlon proved that they were dry, There were also jagged steps, leading up | verhead was a real flooring, and in the ex- > ‘Well, this looks as if we were in the