| Show J I 1 M R E M ri 9 0 1 am his IN strange adventure with the aril ya in 11 tale dowels bowels of the wasatch Wasat cli 1 jk AN N A ID AL 1 r riv X 0 N III I 1 fh if E 0 K I 1 EXCLAIMED I 1 cco J bywater advancing hia his queens bishop I 1 my remaining knight A fatal error my friend cried bywater gleefully quick t v perceive my faux pas you have bac minced your entire cavalry like ney at waterloo when a single compa ny of infantry meaning a pawn would have served your purpose aa as well I 1 shall checkmate in five moves t yea yes 11 I 1 admitted after ft a perturbed survey urvey of the board youve certainly got me in a hole out of which I 1 can see no possible escape yes like bazaine at metz in a cul aulde de sac me or BI As you eay say in a hole and sir Mr bywater beamed for as I 1 was usually the better player be was insanely jubilant whenever ho be bad had beat me and could quote some historic battle as apro apropos poi to our mimic war and now let us irrigate said my friend complacently for you must know bywater was slangy aa as well as classic and this was his singular mode of inviting me to take acome bome punch having irrigated we next proceeded to fumigate bywater producing some clean long stemmed knickerbockers expressly for the occasion together with some genuine moist peri pensile gite fresh from the parish of saint landry for bywater is i like the student in faust ein starkes bier und ein be bei DOS day nun ut aein now bywaters ra tongue and under er the double inspiration of lemon punch and louisiana tobacco was liko like a weel roin mill well supplied d wi wil water I 1 whose he pa vit cappers ebbing still and still the clap clip plays cl clatter atter ll 11 so we talked or rather bywater talked for I 1 was but an appreciative listener and I 1 have sometimes thought this was why bywater liked me for I 1 have long been of the mind that he is much like the tile famous french raconteur who in articolo arti culo mirtis declared himself rejoiced at departing from a W world orld wherein during a long lifetime he had bad never had an ideal listener but aa as I 1 was saying bywater talked like gratiano in the play an infinite deal of nothing more than any roan man in all venice vence and after lightly touching upon various current topics such as the tripartite alliance the summer cloud overhanging the balkan balkans the irish potato famine dillon and OB mission to america fres pres harrisons little speech at ottumwa the prospects prospect 9 of an ogden boom when the robins nest again I 1 and auch such like trifling matters he be finally alighted upon local politics now I 1 abominate politics politic 3 while bywater dotes on om and on that theme be he will talk as long as his eyelids can wag and so it was my present care to shunt him off from this subject and divert hh his loquacity to topic topics more agree agreeable able 11 U mr r bywater I 1 said houi have once or twice sines sine a I 1 have known you vaguely hinted at some adventure with gnomes or fairies or genii or something or other in a cavern in the wasatch mountains but whenever I 1 have sought to question you about it you have abruptly turned the subject and refused to indulge my ray very natural curiosity mayl ask that you will kindly grat afy it now the he twinkle of the th e eye which lent buch such charm to by bi r waters countenance suddenly Bud denly went out like an occultation of venus and its bonhomie was quickly by an expression of deep eat gravity like the radiance rad ianca of spring Lide darkening beneath cloud and aud suddenly denly cas cast t into gloom I aly my dear friend he gravely raid you ask ma me to tell what I 1 have all but solemnly sworn never to reveal not only because lis painful ful to me to recall it bat but that I 1 am also certain that thail 1 should be branded as an arrant liar were I 1 to tell but the half of what betel me and yet meditatively 1 I have often longed to chare share the dread se so cret with some sympathetic friend who might divide with me tha the burden of its oppressive wi weight Fight yes after another thoughtful pause 1 I will tell it to you aptt botex e x act actor of you a sacred promise th that at you tod will never under any circumstances make a jest of it but will ever treat it with the reverence you accord to tho revelations of holy 1 AA cai U writ for though I 1 am not a verj very timid man I 1 yet live in morta mortal terror of these strange beings I 1 an am going to tell you about and the di dirt ire calamity they threaten in us with you must inow then began bywater having drawn nearer tc to tho the crackling tiro fire for bywater always burned wood in an att antiqua led fireplace with two fierce look ing griffins threatening him with in slant stant death you must mast know then that about a year year ago I 1 received ived from a friend in tennessee a superb pointer pup bred either by campbell or bryson I 1 now forget which naturally anxious to try his points I 1 shouldered in my Y parker next day and took barney my pup afield passing out beyond the tile woolen mills wo we ascended the bench just north of the ogden canyon road where u un a der the shadow of the mountains barney shortly came to a point moving in I 1 flushed a fina fine coyey covey of chickens and brought down two each with U my right and left barney retrieved ono in fine style but the other we could not find though between us we made an anxious search so 80 moving closer up a against the moua mountain tain in the direction of three birds which I 1 had 8 spotted potted I 1 waa was not long in beating them up but as they rose at quite a distance and unexpectedly on my right imbt my aim aim was disconcerted and I 1 brought re t down only one and only dingi winging bg that for after a moment ary drop to ground it quickly rose aga again D and fluttered flattered swiftly on toward tho the cliff clit PU pursuing aln g i it as rapidly as the tangled sagebrush sage age brush would permit me I 1 could coul see bee it dart into a sort of cave in tho the mountain side you have doubt doubtless lem often observed this cavo cave a little way to the lefi left of you as you ascend toward tho the mouth of the canyon plunging into thia this opening in hot pursuit ofay of my quarry I 1 had penetrated coma soma distance rj before aare I 1 bi bethought me to look around when I 1 did I 1 stopped topped short in amazement at discovering the cavern to be BO so large drawn further in inward ward by br an irresistible fascination mingled I 1 with a feeling of awe I 1 had hardly reached a hundred feet when hen it assumed astonishing aro pro portions and I 1 found myself in in a chamber larger than union hall but something in the shape of an ellipse making about naif half the circuit of its oval walli walls I 1 camo came to a eort sort of corridor scarcely three feet in width though in hight bight i apparently parent ly reaching to the roif or ceiling of the tue chamber I 1 frankly confess that I 1 hesitated 0 cb o ecter this gallery although my curiosity was now excited to the tile very highest degree but fi finally a ally making a J jest eat of my busil pusillanimity lan i im t Y and having having my courage catly greatly stimulated by y a faint glimmer of light which I 1 could perceive at what I 1 thought might be the other end ot of the corridori corridor iiI boldly I 1 and grasped my way tentatively along careful not to suddenly eledge plunge beneath into some fathomless abyss I 1 judged that in this way I 1 had gone some two hundred feet when I 1 camo came upon another gallery leading sharply off to my left and I 1 was greatly surprised to find it tolerably lighted it was the light struggling from this gallery that I 1 had faintly perceived upon my entrance into the first here I 1 abruptly topped d again and held a consultation of war whether I 1 should valorously ad orbert or beat an orderly retreat but cu curiosity again got the better of my discretion and figuratively speaking I 1 determined like scipio africans Afric anus to boldly push forward into the own country t ry having traveled this passage some three or four hundred hand r ed feet it gradually grew broader and a light er until at a distance of some yard yards it was quite 10 feet wide and perhaps twice as many high and illuminated by a dif diffuse fusei soft silvery light such aa as you may bee at night in the tropic beneath the southern cross at this point loo I 1 observed that the road for such indeed had the corridor become took a downward inclination scarcely perceptible at first but after a few hun dred yards dipping quite rapidly 11 y until tho the gradient must have been ame sime 25 degrees here I 1 was yes deserted by in my pal malj y companion barney who hal had b beer evincing signs of ine increasing ressi ing per tur bation ever since we had enter eater ed the second gallery and who wh now expressed his terror I 1 in a I 1 lon ol 01 lugubrious hol hoi and fairly turne tail and I 1 I 1 confess that I 1 reflected upon this incident with no little alarm for like the ettrick shepherd 1 I cannal canna but believe that dogs hae has agals or at an infallible which cairns warns them of danger and I 1 took it as an ill omen should now so precipitately preci pita belv have abando abandoned ed me however I 1 took heart of courage and said to myself I 1 will go at least a little ways further for I 1 were little more than tham a cur myself if I 1 were as a arrant a c coward oward as barney and eo so proceeding on I 1 I 1 al a 0 i 11 i I 1 r 1 b z down the road I 1 presently came to a ravine which travers traversed d the road at r right an angles g e or rather ob liter abed it utterly for beyond the ravine appeared a vast impassable morass a stretching etching tr as far as the eye could be aee e overgrown by enormous to toadstools toad Dd a stools gigantic mushrooms and other fungous growth while above me though there was no eky sky rose the cavernous vernom ca roof of this nether world higher and higher with the distance of the landscape beyond stupefied with amazement I 1 stood for a moment rooted to the spot and then seized with a name aflame lew legs terror I 1 turned as if to flee but what was my horror to behold escape cut in above me writhed the folds of a monstrous reptile more than i a hundred feet in length puffing out its loathsome jaws like an andrj spread spreading ing adder while its dall dull angri a and g ghastly h a atly eyes star blaring I 1 i in in ravenous 1 hunger transfixed m me ng me poisoned arrows for a moment I 1 could not move a muscle I 1 could not no even breathe in the apell spell of their deadly glare and then with one superhuman effort I 1 tore my eyes away and sped aped in unspeakable terror lown the bed of tho the narrow ravine how far I 1 bad had descended it I 1 had no certain idea pursued by the consuming horror of that fearful thing behind me but I 1 came at last to ton a jagged and precipitous chasm leading agwu down down down as far as my vision vision could pierce into this I 1 plunged without a moments hesitation springing from rock to rock and ledge to ledge in swift but sure footed flight lit tie reeking whither it might lead me so that it led me away from that horrid monster after a while but how far below I 1 know not the descent became less abrupt as I 1 followed the course of a rivulet which brought me dawni down after noura hours of weary clambering into a deep but narrow defile reminding me even then of weber canyon in the vicinity of the devils gate only that its walls rose towering lowering in sheer precipices some thousands of feet still a t ill higher still pursuing the trend of the stream now grown to considerable size and bordered by trees of many man Y varieties but for the most part by gigantic ferns with exquisite feathery foliage 1 I was grievously disappointed at not finding the cannou broaden out in proportion as I 1 descended it on the contrary it drew to still smaller compass until I 1 its to reci pito a a IV walla ails contracted fina finally I 1 ly to such narrow limits as to hardak hardly admit of my passage between t them ein and the rushing swirling ew irling stream at last however after surmounting what at first seemed insuperable arle obstructions turning a bol bold S escarpment of rock I 1 suddenly emerged upon a scene 0 indescribable splendor not far below me lay a valley of such each vast extent expanding to the left and to the right and before mo me in such limitless space that the eye could no its borders so it was like looking out upon the billowy expanse of a crystal summer sea bounded only by the horizon ho judging by what lay within the range of my vision the whole of it was highly cultivated except that its vegetation was altogether straach strange and similar to none that I 1 had ever seel been the prevailing color 1 instead of green being of a deep violet hue such as from the ackop olis I 1 have often observed about twilight diffused over the plains of attica while here and there upon cither either hand upon the margins g f ins of silvery E lakes sparkling i na in in the vialet tinted ian landscape akl 9 like diamonds set in wilh with amethyst el I 1 could perceive a score of cities whose lofty spires and turrets pierced reed the purple fie like ik the domes and minarets mina of 0 byzantium as beheld behold afar from eca sea far above me thousand thou sandi i of feet stretched the vast arch or firmament of thia this nether world studded with thousands upon tens of thousands glittering twinkling lights light while in the very apex of tho the aulty mighty dome like the eun fun at noontide e beamed the steady radiance oi of a 8 vast central light pours ing its flood of subdued and tinted rays upon the lovely world beneath and diffusing a steady warmth as a soft but less oppressive as the climate of southern france while gazing into these upper regions I 1 could sea see gliding quickly through the tile air in every direction innumerable objects some like gigantic birds others like boats largo large and small impelled by sails i shaped like wings before I 1 could speculate e upon the nature of these strange r objects one of the leaser lesser ones seemed to detach itself from fro some others and aim its flight ight il swift as an eagles directly toward me when some thousand feet distant and still at a lofty elevation it seemed to pause for an instant and then swooped down with ith the rapidity ef of a falcon aligi alighting brinl upon the lodge ledge of rock abere I 1 stood an indescribable awe aws swept over me and were it not that my gaza had bad been fascinated I 1 durat not have looked up again for though this mysterious cres creature au re bore some to man inan it was yet plain that he ile wai wa I 1 of another race more like some benius I 1 ts or demon of the arabian nights nigh tales while my eyes wera still riveted upon n the infinite inscrutable calm of 0 ur its majestic countenance more threatening as some tenderhearted tender hearted naturalist might gaze ZO upon a buffering suffering butterfly fa I 1 seam teamed edlo lo 10 feel a sudden electric shock and in an instant in place of my great nervous agitation there passed pawed into me a tense sense of perfect tranquility but ut great godl gool suddenly gud denly to myself my fears again aroused per perhaps h apa it it is ia goin going ato to dissect mo me or rather vivisect me aa as an entomologist might anatomize some unco uncommonly curious insect fallen J 2 perchance in 1 his I way and aud I 1 covered d my face with my hands expecting e every v or Y moment io to feel iho the dead I 1 ly y scalpel cutting about lay my heart but my fears were again allayed by a quiet musical voice which though hin h in a tongue I 1 could not understand de t a nd yet dispelled my agitation for f full ull of a lof lofty ty icetty pity iti its tones were those in n w which h some demigod demi god might in ancient grecian days have addressed a |
