GIRL IN A CELLAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15133, 30 January 1917, Page 7

GIRL IN A CELLAR.

PRISONER FOR TEN MONTHS. Lured to the isolated cellar of an infirmary, Alary Higgins, a pretty girl, was held a prisoner for ten months by Joseph Serak - , says Lloyd’s Weekly. M ith aid only a few feet away, the girl’s cFles for help were futile against the thick stone walls of her dungeon, and for many weary weeks she lived a life such as Edgar Allen Poe iu his wildest fiction never painted blacker. The story was revealed when Serak, tortured by his conscience, allowed the girl to come out of her dungeon. Staggering above to the air and light, Alarm reached safety, but at a tremendous cost for no sooner had she walked out of the heavy darkness than she threw her hands to her face and fell. The slicck had been too much. The sight temporarily had gone from her eyes. In the mefintime her captor has been arrested. The room where the girl had been confined adjoined a shoe shop which Serak had set up in vhe cellar, where he did work for the institution. He lived iu the voom, which was. deep iu the foundations of the main building. and was hidden away near an air duct- That part of the building seldom was visited by the infirmary officials. The girl disappeared on December 28, 1915, and as inmates continually are running away from the nlace, it was supposed she had done likewise. A search of the used portions of the building failed to reveal her presence. Serak continued his work about the place as usual, and there was no bause to suspect him. Becoming frightened, however, he allowed the girl to come from her prison, and when she had been cared for she told her story. She said Serak told her to bring a pail - of shoes to his room -.Jate at night, and when she entered the room he seized her. There he kept her, bringing her small quantities of bread and water, and occasionally a potato or some other food.