A l T>
ttacked by J-Jats
Caught in an Underground
Cavern, Well-Digger Paces
Death Before a Swarm of
Vampires, But Successfully
Eludes Them
By WILLIAM HORNE
T>IZARRE and eerie come almost un
believable stories from India and
South America of the horrible vampire
bats that feed on human beings at
night, Dut nowhere on record has there
been such ar> experience as recently be
fell Wallace Irving, planter, who lives in
Dooly County, Georgia.
“I’ve had a lot of strange things hap
pen to me,” says Mr. Irving, “but the
strangest of all began ope day a few
weeks ago when from the bottom of my
well I was suddenly plunged into an
eerie, subterranean world of rushing
water and black caverns.
“And, while wandering far beneath
the earth’s surface, I was suddenly at
tacked oy a swarm of blood-sucking
creatures which I will always believe
' were vampire bats, although I know
that vampires are not supposed to exist
In America.
“I was cleaning my well, taking ad
vantage of a six weeks' drought. Down
there fifty feet below the surface at the
bottom of my well It was dark, and I
could barely see. I had stuck my shovel
down for a last dip into the mud and
aediment whew Hr happened. The bot
tom of the well literally fell beneath
me, and my scream of terror was choked
by a mouth full of mud and water as I
went down into utter darkness.
“A roar of rushing water filled my
ears as my head banged suddenly
against a hard, wet wall that seemed to
close in bn me. I swallowed a mouthful
of water and mud, went under, felt my
feet touch hard bottom, then managed
to stand up with my head above the
surface.
In Another World
«TT WAS dark—a terrible, water-filled
darkness —so black and rushing it
took all I could do to breathe. It tugged
at my clothes, filled my mouth and
clutched me down in a smothering em
brace.
“I thought I was gone, then. It was
like being in another world, a world of
rushing, roaring black water and hard,
jutting rocks that tore at my face and
body and slipped from my grasp and
slammed me from side to side until I
thought I couldn’t stand all the pain.
But I did stand it, although I don't
know how.
“The current was very swift at this
place. It tugged at me and almost tore
me off my feet, but somehow I managed
to brace myself and walk with it down
that narrow channel.
“Then suddenly it grew deeper. As a
usual thing I am a good swimmer, but
I was weak and sore, and it was all I
could do then to keep my nose above
the surface tc breathe. Finally it shal
lowed and I was able to touch bottom.
I remember ho- thankful I was for
that, for my strength was just about
gone. I waded, and the water receded
down to my waist.
“That was when I was brought sud
denly into b maelstrom of surging, shal
low current that almost pulled my feet
from under me, and brought me sud
denly hard up against a blank, hard
wall.
“I moved my feet about beneath the
water and with one toe felt an opening.
That was it. The stream had worn a
hole through the ancient bed during the
long years, and it tumbled through this
hole to a second bed below. How far, I
had no way of telling. But I could,
since discovering the opening, hear the
dull rogr of it below me."
“For a long time I just stood there
hanging to a small out-thrust rock that
offered me a handhold, trying to collect
my scattered wits. My nose was still
bleeding and my lips were split. I could
taste the salt of fresh blood in my
mouth. With one hand I scooped up
cold, fresh water and washed my lips
and my mouth. For a moment It seemed
to revive me. I groped out with my
hands to my right, and I was surprised
to find that I could not reach the ceil
ing in that direction.
“Feverishly, with new hope, I reached
up in the blackness above my head and
discovered that a wide opening existed
in the right-hand wall almost on a level
with my shoulders.
“Had I stumbled, by sheer tuck, on
another ancient stream bed, one that
was a layer higher than that I was now
standing m, and that that had long
since gone dry?
“Without further exploring, I scram
bled from the water to the pdge of that
newly discovered hole and felt my way
before me. There was a floor, hard and
high and dry With new hope I made
my way down this new-found tunnel.”
Suddenly, as Wallace Irving made
his way slowly through the narrow,
dry channel up the incline he felt a
whirr of air close beside his head. He
slapped one hand about his face in sud
den alarm. What was the sudden move
ment about his face and the dull whir
ring sound ir the darkness?
He stopped still, and then it came
again. This time even closer than the
first and with the swift whirring in his
Everywhere about him the
flitting forms darted and
whirred and squeaked. They
struck at his face and neck
with their sharp beaks and
claws
pars came the unmistakable sound of a
tiny squeak. Bats, he swiftly realized.
He shuddered where he stood.
“The channel had widened here,” he
declares, “and somehow I felt that I
had entered into some kind of a wide,
empty chamber. Maybe it was just my
feelings, but suddenly I went cold all
over as I heard that whirring sound
again and the distinctive beating of
small wings on the still, dank air. I
flailed my arms about my head and
went on. At each step the squeaks
grew more numerous and the darting,
unseen forms whizzed closer to my face
and hea- J .
“The flitting forms about me grew
thicker and the squeaks louder and more
numerous. Finally the air seemed full
of them. Everywhere about me they
darted and whirred and squeaked.
Finally they began hitting me oh the
neck and in the face and on the head.
I ripped off my sodden coat and cov
ered my head, but it didn’t seem to do
any good. They came on, seeming to
charge in the blackness in droves.
“Now, I had heard and read of vam
pire bats, and my understanding of
these creatures was that they only at
tacked a human being during the dead
of night when the victim was asleep.
But not so with these fellows. They
came at me In droves. They flocked
about my face, even partially protected
as I was with my wet coat, and seemed
to flutter beneath It.
“A dozen times I was bitten on the
neck, in the face, on my bare forearms
and hands. I screamed out at them, I
cursed them. I wound the coat about
my face anl fought my way forward as
fast as I could. Where? I didn’t know
or care. Those little devils were flock-
ing by the score all about me. They
were attacking me in droves.”
Suddenly, no longer able to stand
the attack, Irving got to
his feet and ran madly through the
darkness. That was a lucky move. For
almost immediately he felt a fresh
breath of air on his sodden body, he
felt cool air fan his sweating face and
a dim, fitful light cut through the dark
ness of the chamber about twenty feet
ahead.
With a wild cry he ran toward that
soft light and presently stood looking
up at a two-foot crack in the rocky ceil
ing of the channel no more than three
feet above his head.
“It was the best sight I’ve ever seen,"
he avers. “And I stood there sobbing
my relief, looking up at the opening
where the daylight poured in.
“I threw my coat to the flooring of
the cavern, reached up above my head
and grasped a thick root. I drew my
self up to the opening, reached through
and grasped another root. Dirt fell in
on me, Ailing my face and eyes and
mouth. But I didn’t mind that. Here
was freedom. At last I oould get up to
the air and sunlight and on top of the
earth again. Nothing mattered now, ex
cept to get out of that hellish place.
“I pulled through, and as I did those
bats flew at me in earnest. They hit me
in the face, battered against' my head
and one of them scrambled down my
shirt and wriggled down my back.
“I worked my way through the mass
of tough roots, fighting through the
avalanche of dirt and small pebbles that
showered down in my face. Then sud
denly I was up beside the thick trunk
* wateroak. I crawled out on to the
ground, staggered up and made my way
from the tree.
“I thought* once that I’d like to take
a light and explore that cave. But I
know, wher I think of those bats that
seemed to w at to eat me alive, so like
the vampires of India and South Amer
ica, I know I'll never go into that un
derground world again.”