LIFE IN SALT LAKE CITY;
OR,
A Visit to the Mormons.
By LEON LEWIS,
AUTHOR OF "THE GIRL HERMIT" "THE BOY MA-GICIAN" "THE BROKEN HOME" "RED KNIFE" ETC., ETC., ETC.
CHAPTER XXI.
DOCTOR BURTON IS HEARD FROM.
One fire burns out another's burning;
One pain is lessened by another's anguish.
SHAKESPEARE.
The first emotions of Winnie, on being left to herself by the departure of Mountain Jack, were naturally of no pleasant description.
It was not merely that she was alone, in the depths of a silver mine—buried in the earth, as it were—but that the whole current of her lite had been interrupted, and her hopes all blighted.
The shiver, therefore, with which she crouched over the tire she had kindled, replenishing it mechanically, could have been quite as justly attributed to a sense of her situation as to the chill in the cavernous air.
What a host of bitter problems pressed upon her!
Where was Harry Osburn all this time ? Where were her parents ? Could she exist for any length of time in such a grave-like place ? And had she and Jack so well taken their course that Elder True and his men would not find her?
As all these questions could only worry her—at least for the time being—she put them reso-lutely from her, resolving to force herself to contemplate, and even to take an interest in, her immediate concerns and surroundings. And, as the beginning of this course of action, she took a flaming brand from the fire, with which to light her way, and entered upon a survey of the mine.
"What a strange place it is!" she mused. "Down, down deep in the earth, and with an entrance no larger than a well! One man can never have done all this. He must have had as-sistants. Or the mine may have been worked by the Indians hundreds of years ago!"
It was the first silver mine Winnie had ever seen, and the whisper had just then begun to circulate that the mountains around Salt Lake City were full of similar mines, so that it was not hard for her to feel forthwith a deep interest in the survey upon which she had entered.
"And what a life was that lived hereby its former possessor!" ran her further musings. "How he must have delved and toiled, during years of secret labor, even if he had assistants to make such a large hole in the ground!" The tire was now flaming up brightly, scatter-ing its rays to the distant recesses of the mine while the little smoke it caused drifted away into a thousand fissures and seams of the high rocky ceiling, eventually finding escape in the well-like entrance. By the bright beams thus vouchsafed her, in addition to those of her im-promptu torch, Winnie was enabled to scan the principal features of the scene of which she was the life and centre.
Here and there the high, arched ceiling was supported by massive pillars, some of them con-sisting of the primeval rock, others formed of huge blocks of wood, and still others composed of stones of different sizes which had been laid up in the form of sold masonry. Passing be-tween and beyond these pillars. Winnie's dances encountered numerous corridors and galleries, such as every mine exhibits, and peered into the depths of several rock-bound chambers of different dimensions.
"Since I must make my home here for no one knows how long" was the girl's next thought, "I may as well select some cozy little corner, where I shall have every possible feeling of se-curity."
Encouraging herself in this exploration by a glance at her fire, which was now flaming up at its brightest, she passed in and out among the gigantic pillars, her steps awakening hollow echoes, and picked her way among sepulchral excavations, now starting at the rattling of loose earth and stones brushed by her garments or dislodged by her feet, and now at the motions, consequent upon her own, of the grim shadows clustering around her.
The task she had undertaken was one demand-ing no little resolution, but it was at length ac-complished, and the brave girl had looked suc-cessively into all the galleries and chambers of the mine. They all radiated from a common centre, the large opening under the well-like en-trance, and were all more or less encumbered with excavations—all save one.
This one exception was a small, egg-shaped cutting in the rock on the side nearest to the place of descent. It was reached over a narrow ridge, on each side of which was a deep, yawn-ing pit, where the former owner of the mine had evidently toiled hardest and longest.
"Ah, here is where the discoverer ate and slept while working the mine" mused Winnie, as she surveyed the clean, shapely walls and the smooth, polished flooring." Here is where he set his lamp, on this little iron bracket, and yon-der is where he had his bed. At any rate, here is where I will eat and sleep as Iong as I am compelled to remain in the mine. With the things Mr. Weber has gone to bring, I shall at least be secure against freezing or starving."
The rocky chamber thus selected was about the size of an ordinary bedroom. At the point where it joined the principal chamber of the mine—the central opening—it was considerably contracted, so that it seemed cut off from all the other openings, and a snug little apartment quite by itself, having no entrance or outlet other than the mouth by which the girl had en-tered it.
So cozy did this place seem to her, compara-tively speaking, of course, that she instantly re-solved to take possession of it, removing her fire and fuel thither, and this she hastened to do.
And having thus taken possession of such por-tion of the mine as she needed and preferred, she again gave herself up to her thoughts, at the same time busying herself mechanically with the conservation of the tire upon which she was de-pendent for both light and warmth.
Ere long, when it seemed to her that Jack might have been gone long enough for his pur-pose, she looked at her watch. The time being still seasonable, she experienced no uneasiness at his absence.
After another brief series of reflections, how-ever, the decrease of her fire and fuel caught her attention, and she realized keenly how poorly provided she was with wood for a pro-longed stay in these quarters.
"But Jack will make that all right when he comes" she hastened to assure herself. "And in the mean time I must be saving." She wore a riding habit, the reader will remem-ber, and she hastened to reverse its long skirt protect herself from the damp, chilly air of the mine, and so render it easy for her to use her fuel sparingly.
And then followed a long interval of quietude and silence, during which the poor girl's head sank again and again upon her breast, and she lost herself repeatedly in brief snatches of slumber.
At length, however, the fuel with which she had so often replenished the fire during her waking intervals, gave out entirely, and she was compelled to realize that the cold and the dark-ness would soon regain their full empire through-out the mine.
As tired and sleepy as she had been, and as little as she had benefited by her brief intervals of sleep, the thought of being without fire was sufficient to startle her into an anxious, active wakefulness. Springing to her feet, she looked eagerly around, asking herself what she should do.
As would have been expected of her, she soon thought of the huge timbers she had noticed, and hastened to see if she could not, by some lucky chance, secure a piece of wood with which to feed her failing fire, but a rapid survey of the whole mine, with one of the few brands remain-ing, failed utterly in bringing to light even the smallest fragment of timber capable of being detached from its place and devoted to her use.
The realization of this fact was so unpleasant that a general sense of trouble and apprehen-sion at once took possession of Winnie's mind. Hastening to look at her watch again, she was still further troubled—actually startled even—to learn that nearly an hour had passed since she previously consulted it. Her fire was now quite low, consisting of a small bed of coals which could last, only a few minutes longer, they having been made of such mere brush-wood. "I shall soon be in the dark" thought Winnie, with a sinking heart. "And then ?"
Once or twice, in the course of her fitful inter-vals of slumber and waking, she had uttered an ejaculation, the noise of which, rolling and re-verberating throughout the mine, had almost frightened her, so that she did not now utter a word aloud. And now that her remaining fire was perishing so rapidly, she shrank from the least movement, so dismally did the least sound, even of a footstep, echo and reecho around her.
Anguished and full of forebodings, Winnie ac-cordingly crouched again over her coals, shrink-ing involuntarily from the grim shadows which were now closing in upon her. "Oh, it, is time" she assured herself. "He did not intend to go home. He meant to get what he wanted nearer. He ought to have re-turned before now." Thus she crouched and waited and wondered, in utter silence, and almost holding her breath, while her few remaining coals burned lower and lower, and still Jack's absence continued. "And what if he should be intercepted by True and his men!" was the terrible thought with which her anxieties at length culminated. "What if they should kill him? I should be buried alive here! He drew up the rope, and if he hadn't, I could never roll away the stone with which the entrance of the mine is covered and concealed."
These reflections had scarcely occurred to her when she heard the stone in question rolled away, and a burst of light came down into tlie mine from the outer world.
Too glad and relieved to speak, Winnie flew from her hiding-place, gained the centre of the mine, and looked up the well-like entrance to its mouth.
The figure of a man was there visible, but this man, to the girl's horror and consternation, was a total stranger, and one having all the aspects of a ruffian.
Fortunately he was not looking into the mine at the instant Winnie thus looked out of it, or he must inevitably have seen her. What he was looking at was evidently a companion, for liis voice was heard indistinctly by the girl, as she shrank away noiselessly to the hiding-place she had chosen."
Only a few dim coals of her fire had lasted un-til now, and these few the startled girl hastened to trample out, with a presence of mind that did her credit, that they might not betray her pres-ence.
She had scarcely finished this task, when the man she had seen lowered himself into the mine by means of a knotted rope, which he descended hand under hand. "Tell you what, Mink" he vociferated from the rocky flooring, as he snuffed the air, "some-body's been having a fire here!" "A fire?" was the reply, in a hoarse voice, as the rope was drawn up. "Nonsense, man ! How has there been any fire there ? Who knows of the place? And you saw for yourself that every-thing was in place—exactly as we left, it." "But there has certainly been a fire here" persisted the man who had descended into the mine. "I can smell both the heat and the smoke." "Don't be a fool. Hawk !" enjoined the speaker at the mouth of the mine. "Them places allers smell in that way. They're close, you see. Pos-sibly the smell you speak of may be a sort of foul air or dampness. Light the candles, and that'll soon settle the question!"
In obedience to this injunction, a couple of candles, duly supplied with sticks, in the form of square wooden blocks, with a hole in the centre, were immediately lighted, and burned with a flame sufficiently clear and steady to attest that no foul air was near them. By this time, a plenty of fresh air had followed the intruder into the mine, and he now snuffed vainly for either heat or smoke. "Guess you are right, Mink" he ejaculated. "I don't smell any smoke now." "No more'n you did afore" was the half-jeer-ing declaration of the man above. "But bear a hand there, and set your candles one side, if you don't want 'em put out."
The man below moved the candles to one side, as directed, and then stood looking up expect-antly, in such a posture that his form and feat-ures were plainly revealed to the horrified watcher, who had promptly hidden herself in the deepest nook of her rocky chamber. And the view of him thus afforded her was enough to tell her that she had everything to fear and nothing to hope from his presence. "Well, what are you about?" he growled im-patiently. "We've been all day getting here, besides prowling like wolves all night, and I'm completely gone up, what with this eternal foot-back journey, and want o' sleep!" "I'm getting this rope fast to the prisoner" was the explanatory answer from above. "There! it's all right now, and you jest keep quiet, will you? I'll soon let him down by the run ! There, look out for him !"
The next instant, the figure of a man, bound hand and foot, was lowered to the rocky floor of the mine, and was instantly followed by the man from above, who slid down the same rope by which his companion had descended, and by which their prisoner had been lowered. "Well, here we are, and the trouble of the job's over" said this last arrival. "And none too soon either, for my patience and strength are both used up completely." He touched with his loot the helpless figure lying between him and his companion, and added: "Guess he's had about as hard a time as we did. But he would fight us, and keep up a con-stant botheration. Why, I thought one while we'd never get him here, even if he didn't get away altogether. He'd have got away, as sure as you live, if there had been only one of us in charge of him. And he'd have howled the bark off from the trees by the way, if we hadn't gagged him." "I agree with you there. But hadn't we bet-ter let up on him a little ? Better take the gag out of his mouth, I think, and set him up against one of them pillars, so that he can get a breath of the fine morning air."
This proposal being accepted, the two ruffians took a large wooden gag from the mouth of their prisoner, and placed him in the position indica-ted "Thank you—for that relief" he panted, draw-ing a long breath. "I've nearly suffocated." A rustling followed—a footstep or two—the murmur of a suppressed cry. The voice of the prisoner had almost caused Winnie to betray her presence. "Father!" had trembled upon her lips. For the prisoner thus lowered into the mine was Dr. Burton, and the two men in charge of him were Mink and Hawk, as Bishop Coulter had called them.
CHAPTER XXII.
A GENERAL RENDEZVOUS.
Men are the sport of circumstances, when
The circumstances seem the sport of men.
BYRON.
For a moment after Winnie's partial betrayal of her presence, by her involuntary murmur and movement, the two ruffians looked inquiringly at each other, listening intently. "Thought I heard something" growled Hawk. "And so did I" returned Mink. Here Dr. Burton heaved a sigh that was almost a groan, at the same time shifting his position uneasily and with considerable noise. "Tw'as only the Doctor" declared Hawk. "I thought at fust some of'em might be coming. It's about time, you see—nigh onto nine o'clock."
He glanced rapidly over the Doctor's bonds, to assure himself that they were still quite se-cure, and then dropped himself upon the rocky floor of the mine, with an air of the greatest weariness. Mink lost no time in imitating this example.
The light of the candles Hawk had lighted was quite sufficient to reveal the couple and their prisoner distinctly to the startled watcher, al-though not bright enough to reveal anything clearly beyond the limited space of which they had taken possession. How earnestly Winnie looked at them.
The form of her father was bowed, his eyes wild and burning, his hair tumbled, his garments torn and disordered, and his features, except where they were scratched and bruised, were pallid and ghastly. His face and garments were even spotted with blood. His whole aspect was that of one who has been engaged for hours in a desperate struggle. It was with the utmost difficulty that Winnie, as she noted the harrowing picture he presented, could remain quiet and silent.
The man answering to the name of Mink had evidently chosen or received his sobriquet in a spirit of mockery, for he was a tall, coarse, formidable looking desperado, with whom few men would have willingly measured forces. His companion, who had answered to the name of Hawk, had a striking resemblance to a bird of prey, having a nose resembling a bill, a mouth of the most capacious and threatening descrip-tion, and eyes remarkable for their keen and savage glances. He was rather under the aver-age size of men, and hence presented quite a contrast with Mink, but what he lacked in size was more than made up to him in quality, he be-ing in every way a most resolute and unscrupu-lous villain.
As Winnie surveyed the couple, she realized how inadequate she was to copo with them, even with the aid of the revolver Jack had taken from the Elder, and which the girl still retained in her pocket. It was with an anxiety full of terror, therefore, that she continued to watch and listen, crouching amid the dense shadows of her place of concealment. "The Bishop 'll soon be here" muttered Mink, after a pause. "All we've got to do now is to wait for him." "And while waiting we may as well have a quiet smoke" returned Hawk. "That won't prevent us from keeping a good watch on the Doctor, and on everything around us."
Mink assented to this view of the case, and they lost, no time in producing pipes and to-bacco, and in indulging their favorite weak- ness. "A nice man is the Bishop!" resumed Mink. "Lovely as potash" declared Hawk. "He pays out well, sence he struck this little game. At the rate he's now coming down with the stamps, we shall soon be able to retire from business, my boy, set up a ranche on a hundred mile Spanish grant, and become Judges and Guv'ners!" The prisoner heaved a deep sigh again. "I suppose there is no use" he said, "in my making another appeal to your love of money ?" "Not the least" replied Hawk. "Fact is, you haven't got the stamps, and the Bishop has. You cannot outbid him, I reckon!" "Not much !" muttered Mink. "Bull and Bear dug up all his money, and it is now in the Bishop's keeping, besides which the Bishop has his own." "True, the Bishop has robbed me of a large sum of money" assented Dr. Burton, "but I have other resources, and many friends at the East, and even in Utah—" "No man in your fix has any friends, Doctor" interrupted Mink mockingly. "None of the men you're thinking of would help you to a dol- lar!" "Well, I suppose there is no use of appealing to any other of your senses" sighed the physi-cian wearily. "Not much" answered Hawk. "No threats can scare 11s—no crying and howling affect us. Mink and I are not soft- shells nor spoonies— not any, no how! You must look to the Bishop. He alone can save you!"
This conversation enlightened Winnie at once. "It is as we feared, then !" she thought. Bish-op Coulter sent for father only to entrap him. The man Cuppings either uttered a falsehood to Mr. Weber, or was mistaken." "Fact is, the Bishop's all bound up in this little plot" added Hawk, turning to his companion. "Reckon he's thinking of Mrs. Burton, as well as of the Doctor. The grass won't grow under his feet while he's coming up into the moun-tains !" "No, Hawk, and he won't be behind time either. He'll soon be among us. Hark!"
A noise was heard at the entrance of the mine, and the two men listened again, as did Winnie and the physician.
"Hallo, down there!" called a voice. The two ruffians leaped to their feet, as if elec-trified.
"There he is now" cried both in chorus, as they hastened to place themselves immediately under the well-like entrance. "Hallo!" repeated the voice from above.
"Are you there? Is everything right ?"
"Jest as it should be, sir" replied Hawk, showing himself to the new-comer, who was in-deed Bishop Coulter. "The Doctor is here, as safe as ever!"
"Anybody else?"
"No, sir. Can you come down by the rope, as we did ?"
"I'll try it."
Suiting the action to the word, the Bishop came swinging down into the mine with an awk-wardness that caused his minions to exchange knowing glances with each other.
"Glad you got along so well" resumed Coul-ter, as soon as his feet touched the rocky floor-ing. "Did anybody see you ?"
"Not, a soul. We took the long way, keep-ing clear of the roads, as you ordered. We haven't seen a solitary human being sence we started."
"But what ails the Doctor?" continued the Bishop, turning his attention to the prisoner.
"He has been fighting us every step of the way" replied Hawk. "Couldn't keep him on the horse, no how. Had to thrash him more'n twenty times."
"And that's how he came to be in this bat-tered condition ?"
"Yes, sir. Your orders was to kill him, if necessary—to get, him to the mine alive, if we could, but to get him here in any case. But he acted like a man ravin' destracted—kept talking about his wife—tried to bribe us—r'ared and pitched like a calf hitched to a gate-post"
"Well, he has only to thank himself for what he has got, then" commented Coulter. "But you had better set him to rights a little. Wash the blood from his face and comb his hair. Smooth out his coat and his collar. Have you any whisky ?"
Both men assented.
"That'll be better for your purpose than water. It will refresh him. Let him have a lit-tle inside as well as outside, if he will take it. I don't want his daughter to see him in that fix. Brush him up as soon as you can."
The two men set about this task instantly, while Coulter began to pace impatiently to and fro.
"His daughter to see him?" repeated Winnie to herself. "What can he mean ?"
The question was speedily answered.
Mink and Hawk had scarcely made the desired improvements in the physician's personal ap-pearance, when the knotted rope, which they had left hanging in the well-like entrance, was violently shaken. "Good! There he is!" cried Coulter eagerly. He bounded to the foot of the rope, looking up through the opening. "You're here, then ?" called a hoarse voice. Again Winnie nearly betrayed herself, in her wonder and excitement. The voice was that of Elder True. "Yes, we are here" replied Coulter. "Can you come down, as we did, by the rope?" "I can at least try" returned the Elder. "Stand from under! I shall be the death of you, if anything should give way." While uttering these words, in a growling, raging voice, True lowered himself into the mine, with an agility that surprised all the ob-servers. "And so here you are, Bishop?" was his first exclamation after landing. "You and yer men and the prisoner. You've succeeded, I see, in your half of the business." "And you, Elder?" returned Coulter, scan-ning the new-comer, and then looking up again at the mouth of the mine. "You've succeeded, I suppose ? Where is the girl ?" "The girl!" repeated True, with a burst of profanity that shocked even Mink and Hawk. "Why, the girl isn't, with me." "Not—with you!" cried Coulter. "No. She was resided by Mountain Jack—who'll be a jumpin' Jack as soon as I can get hold of him! They got off together." "But how was that?"
Taking the arm of Coulter, True led him aside—toward the place of Winnie's conceal-ment—and proceeded to explain the situation of affairs to him.
He narrated how he went to the physician's house, and was about to carry off the daughter; how Mountain Jack made his appearance and took him prisoner; how Jack had then searched for the girl's parents; how Winnie and Jack had at length set out for the latter's house, taking him along as a prisoner; how they had fallen in with some of the Look-out band; how he had finally been released, and how he had pursued the couple; and how he had finally come to the mine to report his ill-luck. "And so, Bishop, you see how the thing has turned" was his concluding peroration. "The girl has escaped me, and the whole thing'll be blabbed to the four winds afore to-morrer. Shouldn't wonder if Brother Brigham should hear of it." "Oil, no; there's no danger of that" declared Coulter soothingly. "The girl hasn't gone so far but that you can find her. The boys are scouting the mountains?'" "Far and near—like wolves, half a dozen of 'em. I've offered a thousand dollars for the girl's capture, and as much more for the killin' of the Jumpin' Jack, wherever they find him." "Then what are you troubled about ? They 'll find the couple sooner or later. In the mean time, you've only to hear how I've got along to become as cool as a cucumber. Listen."
Securing one of the candles by which the scene was illuminated, he conducted True upon the ridge leading to the girl's hiding-place. "Everything has gone well with you, then?" demanded the Elder. "Yes. It couldn't have gone better." "Mrs. Burton was secured, as well as her husband ?" "Certainly. She is at my house at this moment."
The couple had lowered their voices, although without, any attempt at secrecy, but they stood facing so directly toward Winnie's hiding-place, that she heard these several questions and an-swers distinctly.
Her mother, then, was at Coulter's. How the poor girl's heart leaped at the thought!
The two men had halted midway of the ridge, and did not seem to have any intention of pro-ceeding further in that direction, so that Winnie's thoughts were not yet directed to her own crit-ical situation, but were entirely absorbed in that of her mother. "This is good" muttered True, in response to the last item of Coulter's information. "At yer own bouse, Bishop? Nothing could be bet-ter. You've shut her up in a strong place, of course?" "No, I haven't shut her up at all. She isn't at my house as a prisoner, but as a guest. Listen."
He proceeded to relate how Mrs. Burton had come to his house, inquiring for her husband; how he had responded to this inquiry; how he had caused her to be attacked in the streets and captured: how he had come to her rescue; how he had deceived her completely as to his charac-ter and to his actions; and how she had finally accepted his hospitality, in order to avoid dis-turbing her neighbors unseasonably, and espe-cially in order to receive an early report from him, in accordance with his promise, concerning her husband's whereabouts. In fact, he briefly related the various facts concerning the unfor-tunate lady which we have already detailed to the reader.
"And she is at yer own house, Bishop?" repeated True, when his confederate had fin-ished. "Yes. She's virtually a prisoner, of course, although she does not know it. My man Kreb-bling is keeping his eye upon her. As to my blind—my Cuppings, you know—I've sent him away on business into the country." "That was well managed" said True. "Your Cuppings, like my man Bruel, is as fanatical as honest, and we have done well to place them between us and all inquiries after the Doctor and his family. But how are we to proceed further in the business ?" "Why, the game must remain blocked, to a certain extent, of course, until you can contrive to capture the daughter. You will continue the search, of course, until she is found, and I will keep a tight hold of both of her parents. And this brings me to a point that I must have well understood between us." "A point, Bishop ? What is it?" Taking the Elder by the arm, Coulter led him still further along the ridge, and consequently still nearer to the rocky chamber in which Win-nie was hidden. "The point is this" explained the Bishop, sinking his voice to a whisper. "From what I have said to you, you realize that I have made a good impression upon Mrs. Burton ?" "Sartain." "She thinks me an honest man, and a friend." "See it completely." "Well, I think, if she were a widow, I could make myself her next husband !" "You, Bishop ? You don't know her. She'd never share you with the present Mrs. Coulter—never!" "Of course not. But the present Mrs. Coul-ter—I must be frank enough to tell you—has run away and left me!" "Run away? You astonish me! For good and all ?" "Yes, to stay away forever!" "Why, I thought she was in Tooele City, on a visit to her brother." "Well, that's what I have told Cuppings, and what he has told others. But I don't know where she is. All I know is, that we have quarrelled beyond all redemption, and that she has vanished. And such being the facts in the case, I can readily get a divorce, and so qualify myself to become the husband of Mrs. Burton—if the Doctor can by any possibility he got rid of." "Well, that could be managed in various ways" observed True thoughtfully. "But are you so dead smitten with her ladyship?" "Yes. Ever since I commenced prowling about her house, with the aid of our duplicate keys, I have been falling in love with her deeper and deeper. And since I have made such a good beginning with her, I begin to hope that we can give a certain turn to our projects—" "And so we can, no doubt" interrupted True, in a voice of deadly significance. "We'll talk of that after the girl is captured. If the Doctor were dead, or if his death could be cleverly simulated—But enough of that, till to-morrer. Have you brought blankets and provisions" Yes, a horse-load of them." "And you think it'll be safe to keep the Doctor here ?" "Why, of course. No one, save ourselves is aware that there is such a place in existence." "Then things are not so bad as they might be" declared the Elder, who had gradually been re-covering his wonted equanimity. "The girl can't keep out of our way a great while, even if she has the Jumpin' Jack to protect her. It an't in human nature for her to go far, so long as her pa and ma continner to be absent. She'll hover around these 'ere mountains until we find her."
The Bishop assented to this opinion.
"And in the mean time" proceeded True, "you must hang on to yer pris'ner at home, and keep this 'ere Doctor hid where the Jumpin' Jack won't find him. If you have faith in this 'ere mine, why, let yer two men remain here in charge of him. Suppose we take a turn along these dark edges of the mine, and see what sort of accommodations it has for a pilgrim !" The two men had now advanced so near to the girl's hiding-place, that she could not remain more sensitive to the peril of her parents than to her own. In fact, she could not now shut her eyes to the perils with which she was threatened. Yet how could she avert them ? How avoid detection ? What course could she take ? "Hallo!" suddenly cried Coulter, elevating his candle above his head and peering into the gloom before him. "What is that, Elder ? Did you hear it?" "Hear what, Bishop?" "A flutter—a rustling—a movement"
The noise was caused by Winnie, who had again advanced a step or two, peering wildly out into the central chamber of the mine—only to realize that there was no way of making her escape from her place of concealment unnoticed. She was as sure to be found as a dollar in the bottom of a bag. "I did hear—Ah, there it is ag'in!" exclaimed the Elder, with a sudden but keen alarm. We must see to this. May be it's a grizzly. May be that there's another way into the mine. Caution now. Look out for it. Ah, there it is ! Some-thing movin'." "Where? where?" cried Coulter and his two men, in chorus, as they advanced nearer. "There! straight ahead !" replied True, draw-ing a revolver and advancing cautiously. "It's not a grizzly. It's a—a—yes, it's a man. No, it's a woman." "A woman, Elder ?" "I've said it. A woman that has been listen-in' to all we've been sayin'. And what's more" he added, with starting eyes and a terrific ex-citement, "it's the girl herself." "The girl herself? Miss Burton, you mean? The Doctor's daughter?" The Elder uttered a wild yell, as if his senses had left him. He jumped up and down, with a frantic excitement, tossing his arms, and shout-ing: "Yes, it's the Doctor's girl, sartain! There she is! Look at her! The girl herself, and no mistake about it! We've caught her!"
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
