ir frantic grasp on the stone slab of the floor. I
recall the sharp pain, as that fair-faced fiend stamped upon my
clutching fingers; I heard the echo of sneering laughter with which she
mocked my last upward look of agony, but, with the plunge downward into
that black, unknown abyss, all clear recollection ceased--I even retain
no memory of the severe shock which must have occurred as my fall
ended. Whether excess of fear paralyzed the brain, or what may have
been the cause for such a phenomenon, I know not. I merely state the
fact.

I awoke--how much later God alone knows--lying upon the rough stone
bottom of an awful well, huddled in its blackness. When I finally made
attempt at straightening my cramped limbs it seemed as if each separate
muscle had been beaten and bruised, and it required no little
manipulation before I even recovered sufficient strength to stand
upright and endeavor to ascertain the nature of my grewsome
prison-house. My stiffness caused me to believe that I must have lain
motionless for several hours in the same cramped position into which I
fell, before even regaining consciousness. Another evidence of this
was the blood which, having flowed copiously from a severe cut upon the
back of my head, had so thoroughly hardened as to stanch the ugly
wound, thus, perhaps, preserving my life.

Slowly I returned to a clear realization of my position, for my eyes
opened upon such intense darkness I could scarcely comprehend in my
weakened, dazed condition that it was not all a dream from which I was
yet to awaken. Little by little the mind began asserting itself,
vaguely feeling here and there, putting scrap with scrap, until
returning memory poured in upon me like a flood, and I grasped the
terrible truth that I was buried alive. The knowledge was a deathlike
blow, with which I struggled desperately, seeking to regain control
over my shattered nerves. I recall yet the frenzied laugh bursting
from my lips--seemingly the lips of a stranger--ringing wild and
hollow, not unlike the laughter of the insane; I remember tearing wide
open the front of my doublet, feeling I must surely choke from the
suffocating pressure upon my chest; I retain memory of glaring
violently into the darkness; how I fondled the sharp edge of the
hunting knife, crying and shouting impotent curses, which I trust God
has long ago forgiven, at that incarnate devil who had hurled me down
to such living death. Terror dominated my