CHAPTJEK XLIV.—(Continue).

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1595, 23 September 1882, Page 5

CHAPTJEK XLlV.— (Continue).

He knew that under any ciicumstancea he could not live an hour. The drain had been teo great. He remembered, too, the calculations he had made when he contrived the hellish plot to immure Jack alive in that very mtyp, how long a man could breathe in a level when it was sealed up. There was a quantity of life-giving oxygen in a space; when that was exhausted the must die a horrible heath. And when had calmed down a little, he could that the air was already thick, and with carbonic acid gas It to give no life. 0, for one breath of pure and glorious element which lie had ■ breathed such a short time since. He re- ■ inembered now how keen and bracing it was ; Bhow it seemed to infuse fresh life and energy f into the organisation. As a man in a dreary desert of sand pants for the running brook, so did this wretched being long for one breath of the air of heaven— the air that blew over the greon fields. But it came not ; in its place were those " blasts of hell," that only distressed and suffocated. Ordinary beings would, when placed in such a position, have tried to repent for the misdeeds of their life, and prepare for the great change. But Obadiah scorned these feelings. When he comprehended that there * was no prospect of escape — that death was inevitable — his soul became filled with one desire — to be revenged on Sniggle Snickers. He endured the torments of perdition when he thought of the manner in which this man could escape punishment ; how he could hold the shares and become wealthier than ever he was". The man absolutely gnashed his teeth when he thought of the triumph of Jack, the security of Hector. Hell itself could not such torment in store as this. The HEtdily pain ho suffered was a drop in the to thfs mental agony and unnatural r But Obadiah was fertile in expedients. He bethought him that he had in his pocket some tablets, whiph he had brought with him to - take notes of the work down in the mine, he had, too, a box of matches used to light his cigars. Trying his hands he found that the right was not so injured but that he could move the Avrist about a little. He first felt for the matches, and after great trouble, for he was becoming veiy weak, he lit one. What a thrill of pleasure Hashed through his frame when the match diffused its weak radiance. He then s>aw that he must have been hurled along by the explosion into the very end where Snickers and he had been examining the reef. All around the evidences of the terrible convulsion were strewn, and a glance sufficed to show him that (Jays must elapse before the miners could reach him. There was no crosscut such as had saved Jack's life. But he soon saw that rapidly as he was sinking, exhaustion would not be the cause of his death. The huge blocks of stone had completely blocked up the level, and the water was rising rapidly. He could not move'; so the fatal stream would soon rise around him. It was already up to his knees, although he had not felt it. His coward heart was again dismayed at this, and he would have relapsed into a state of helpless terror were it.not that he was nerved by the terrible desire to wreak vengeance upon his murderer. Setting the box of matches on fire he laid down the tablets on a piece of rock and began to write disjointly and painfully. But as he wrote on, describing the whole of the occurrence, his face lit up with a fiendish glow that made it appear awful in the fitful glare of the burning matches, which served only to show the hideous gloom of the vault. Even in that moment" as he wrote with great drops of agony upon his brow, for the work of writing pained him terribly, nothing but his devilish will could have forced the maimed 4^ hand to write; he saw the tableau of his revenge, his livid corpse confronting the murderer, reading the tablets, the arreßt, the condemned cell, the drop, and Sniggle. Snickers hanging between heaven and earthy his vengeance full and complete. It ' salniost reconciled him to death. He could write uo more. The matcheswere .nearly burned f out, and the energy was

inov<\ A few struggles, ono or two feeble efforts, and Obadiah Sweefccomfort lay a stiffening corpse in the cold pool, surrounded by darkness and silence.