the air; the solid floor upheaved; the walls of the old Haunted Chapel
fell in a heap of smoking ruins; and all the valley and the mountain
tops were lighted up with the flames of destruction.

CHAPTER IV.

AFTER THE EXPLOSION.

Horror wide extends
Her desolate domain!--THOMPSON.

The thunder of the explosion, when the old Haunted Chapel was blown up,
was heard for many miles around.

It burst upon the unsheltered wayfarers like the crack of doom!

It stunned the plantation negroes gathered around their cabin fires!

It startled the planters' families at their elegant tea-tables!

Travellers paused panic-stricken on the road!

Home-dwellers, high and low, rushed with one accord to doors and windows
to see what the dreadful matter might be!

Was it an earthquake?

Had some unsuspected volcano suddenly burst forth in the mountain?
Indeed it seemed so!

Volumes of black smoke ascended from a certain point of rocks, filling
all the evening air with the suffocating smell of sulphur.

There was a pause of astonishment among the people for about one minute
only; and then commenced a general stampede of all the able-bodied men
and boys from a circle of several miles in circumference to the centre
of attraction; while the women and girls waited at home in dread
suspense!

But the very first on the scene of the catastrophe was a lamed negro.

Poor Joe! Just as his master had surmised, he had met with an accident.
He had, indeed, reached Black Hall in safety, near the dawn of that
day; but being quite exhausted with twenty-four hours of watching,
working, and fasting, he succumbed to drowsiness, fatigue, and famine.
In short, he ate and drank and slept.

He did not mean, poor faithful creature, to do more than just recruit
sufficient strength to take him back, with the tools, to his master.

But when one, under such circumstances, surrenders to sleep, he loses
all control over himself for an indefinite period of time. Joe slept
fast and long, and never waked until he was rudely kicked up by a
fellow-servant, who demanded to know how he came to be sleeping on the
hay in the barn, and if he meant to sleep forever.

Joe started up, at first confused and delirious, but afterwards, when he
came to his senses and found that it was past noon, he was utterly
wretched and inconsolable. He did not even resent the rudeness of his
comrade, in kicking him up; but, on the contrary, meekly t