"Let us be on,"--imperatively. "I shall not only catch my death of
cold, but I shall be horribly compromised."
"My dear young lady, on the word of a gentleman, I will do the best I
can to get you out of this cellar. If I have jested a little, it was
only in the effort to give you courage; for I haven't the slightest
idea how we are going to get out of this dismal hole."
We went on. We couldn't see half a dozen feet in front of us. The
gloom beyond the dozen feet was Stygian and menacing. And the great
grim shadows that crept behind us as we proceeded! Once the girl
stumbled and fell against me.
"What's the matter?" I asked, startled.
"I stepped on something that--that moved!"--plaintively.
"Possibly it was a potato; there's a bin of them over there. Where the
deuce are we?"
"If you swear, I shall certainly scream!" she warned.
"But I can swear in the most elegant and approved fashion."
"I am not inclined to have you demonstrate your talents."
"Aha! Here is the coal-bin. Perhaps the window may be open. If so,
we are saved. Will you hold the candle for a moment?"
Have you ever witnessed a cat footing it across the snow? If you have,
picture me imitating her. Cautiously I took one step, then another;
and then that mountain of coal turned into a roaring tread-mill.
Sssssh! Rrrrr! In a moment I was buried to the knees and nearly
suffocated. I became angry. I would reach that window-
"Hush! Hush! The noise, the noise!" whispered the girl, waving the
candle frantically.
But I was determined. Again I tried. This time I slipped and fell on
my hands. As I strove to get up, the cord of my gown became tangled
about my feet. The girl choked; whether with coal-dust or with
laughter I could not say, as she still had on her cambric-mask.
"Forgive me," she said. And then I knew it was not the coal-dust.
"I'll forgive you, but I will not promise to forget."
"Merciful heavens! you must not try that again. Think of the noise!"
"Was I making any noise?"--rubbing the perspiration from my forehead.
(I had taken off my mask.)
"Noise? The trump of Judgment Day will be feeble compared to it.
Surely some one has heard you. Why not lay that board on top of the
coal?"