134 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. — 
ill adjusted around his body, gave him the most 
excruciating pain. But soon his pain was for- 
gotten in a new and dreadful peril. 
‘When he was ninety feet from the mouth 
of the pit, and one hundred from the bottom, 
swaying and swinging in mid-air, he heard rapid 
and excited words of horror and alarm above, 
and soon learned that the rope by which he was - 
upheld hal taken fire from the friction of the 
timber over which it passed. Several moments 
of awful suspense to those above, and still more 
awful to him below, ensued. To them and to 
him a fatal and instant catastrophe seemed in- 
evitable. But the fire was extinguished with a 
bottle of water belonging to himself, and then 
the party above, though almost exhausted by 
their labors, succeeded in drawing him to the 
top. He was as calm and self-possessed as upon 
his entrance into the pit; but all of his com- 
panions, overcome by fatigue, sank down upon 
the ground, and his friend, Professor Wright, 
from overexertion and excitement, fainted, and 
remained for some time insensible. 
“The young adventurer left his name carved 
in the depths of the Maelstrom—the name of 
the first and only person that ever gazed upon 
its mysteries.” 
