AT THE THIRD FLOOR.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12452, 15 March 1906, Page 10

AT THE THIRD FLOOR.

By Crett. \VAR*rK. It was a cold disagreeable day, late in Nov.-! '• •!•. and the cutting wind blew in fioreo little gusts around the corners of the tail city buildings. The streets were almwit deserted save for a few n;<-n and women who, muffled almost, beyond recognition, hurried with heads b-r-nt in lace of the wind, which seemed to co:riO from every direction. The liirrmometer registered several degrees below zero, and the sky was heavy, with overy indication of snow. No one noticed that, tho groat clock in the courthouse had stopped, and at three o'clock no one mitred the striking of tiio hour. At. jn«t one miiiiito before t.hree tho power which ran the clock was turned off* and, tor the fir.~t time >inoe it was started, year.s before, fho great hands were stili. The nut which held the hands in place had become loosened, and a man skilled in the mechanism of clocks had t*en called to tighten the ecrow. It. was a perilous undertaking. The clock was tJireo hundred and eighty feet above the .street, and his only way to get at it was by lowering himself from a look-out thirty feet above. The face measured twenty-four feet, the minute hand was nearly twelve feet long, the hour hand nine. These hands wore very heavy and solid, of wood covered with galvanized iron, 'and were two icet thick. The man stood for a minute ga/.inz out over tho city, after fastening the r«>po which was to let him down to tho cJock. lie planned to gain a footing on tho hour hand, which was almost horizontal at this hour,'and to work his" way across to the- centre, where it would take him but a moment to tighten the screw, get back to the rope and pull J-.iiro-olf up. He drew a deep breath and carefully let himself over the stone railing of tho lookout. 'ilit* snow was now falling- fine and fast, driven hard by tho wind. Tho man wa.s almost- blinded by it, when he felt Jiis foot firm upon the hour hand. Tho rope was barely long enough, and he wished he had fa ken a longer one, but he thought it Mould not p.iy to go back, as long a« this, one would reach, though he realised that it would b: , harder for him to get back with tlwehort one. Sitting down, he slid over to the centre, and commenced his work. Every moment the snow became more blinding, and as he glanced downwards ho noticed that he could not ccc the streets below. Ho had finished and was just abolit to start, back for the rope when he heard a great whirr inside the. clock, and almost at the same time felt a jerk of Uio hand upon which ho was seated. He made one mad, hurried move towards the end of the hand, when all at once his every sense seemed to bo paralyzed by the deafening sound of the chimes. The sound seemed to vibrate through every part of him, and it was impossible to attempt to move until Uie, last of the three deep tones striking the hour died away, and he felt cnotlier jerk of the hand beneath him. It was but an instant, and he had gained tho end of the hand ajid was cautiously getting to his feet. He reached for the rope. The wind was blowing it and ho could barely touch it with the ends of his fingers) Hβ groaned aloud and strained every ligament in an effort to get a hold on the rope, but it seemed impossible. At last it was almost within his grasp—but, with a jerk which nearly- unbalanced him, the hand again slipped, and the ropo was hopelessly out of reacth! It seemed to the desperate riian that his "reason must go in that awful instant! • ■ Ho re-seated himself, for the shock had weakened his knees and his strength seemed gone. Tho cold was intense and there was no way of making anyone hear a cry for help. Nor was there any chance of anyone discovering •his danger. With every minute the hour hand elippod downward over an inch, and—merciful heaven! As he looked itp at the great minute hand ho realised what an awful fate would overcome ltim in a few minutes if some help did not come to him. With every minute the descending hand brought certain death so much t.ne nearer! Good God! Must he sit there calmly and count the minutes until he should.be gradually crushed to death? For at a quarter past, the hour, the minute hand must pass the hour hand on which ho was seated, and t.he distance between the two was only a little over two inches! His brain seemed dead. He couldn't think. His gaze was fascinated by the rapidly descending hand which was either, to crush him to death or hurl him off on to tho steeply-slanting roofs of the building two hundred feet belcw. Ho. glanced down. Would it not be better to jump then and en 4 the horrible suepen.se? No, he loved his life, and then—-some help might come. And so ho waited. The minutes, which had seemed to ccme so rapidly upon each other at first, now seemed slower and slower, until he wondered if the clock

might not be stopping. But no. Jt came on and on, this dreadful thing which, was to kill him. Hβ found himself calculating whether it would crush him or knock him off. Hβ wished the hands moved steadily instead of in those terrible jerks. One more jerk, or minute, and tho hand would touoh his head. He crouched over and waked. The hand descended and he codd not sit up without touching it. He must- lie flat-—it would be easier that way, he thought, and he was quite calm now. All this time he had been sitting with his face toward the clock, his feet hanging down between the hour hand and the dial. As he raised his feet to lie on the hand he suddenly stopped, and in a moment was getting over the side of the hand next to the. clock. Yes, there was room for his body it he could hold his weight until the minute hand had pa«*d the hour hand, and then he could raise himself again to his former position. His niuedes wero strong, and at first his weight wemed as nothing. The minutes (seemed longer now than ever and the biting cold was benumbing his fingers in spite of the heavy gloves lie wore. At last, just as it seemod that he must let go, it. passed, and he raised himself once more. Jltifc what would this ava.ii him? ho thought. Just another hour of life? | He could not endure this for twelve hours, even if he could manage to keep his hold, and this mmmdchl unlikely, for the elarrt of the hand was nuikihg it mor« difficult each minuto to keen Ins position. In a few hours it would bo dark, and with the night, the cold was certain to become more intense, and lie would freezp. Death seemed inevitable, but he determined to hold out as long as a ray of hope came to him. iVnd co on through the lengthening hours. Then he found, with the increasing slant of the hand, that lit? must do.vi.~ve some other method of hanging on. so he laid himself flat upon" the beam, and, with hi.s anne around it, braced his feet against the jut which formed the point. In this way ho could keep his position, oven though tho hands wore perpendicular. At. each quarter the great, chimes rang out, their vibration almost, sickening him, so loud and close were they. Quarter-past four—and he must soon hang on to the hand again while the other passed. He lowered himself, and this time it was harder than before, for his joints were stiff with the cokl, arid the altered position of the hour hand made it more difficult to get a good hold. Just as the long hand was pnraing over the short one, a dospera.te idea entered the frenzied mind of tho man who was making seuch n fight for his life. Quickly,' though with great- clangor of slipping and falling, he reached one leg and then the other around on to the minute hand, and, just as it passed the hour hand, swung himself upon it. Tho horrors of that dizzy journey around the clock on the minute hand, tho terrible danger he underwent in changing his position on the hand so as to escape having his head downwards, cannot be expressed in words, but he was saved from death, for at a little after ten minutes past five o'clock, hie half-frozen hands-reached the rope that meant life to him. And when ho had gained the lower halls of the building to take the elevator to the ground floor, the elevator boy stared at him in horror. The man he'had taken up less than three hours before was young and his hair had been a rich, dark brown. Ims was 6Urely the same man—but his hair was as white as the snow falling outside!