ut suspecting that at that moment Alexander was being held a
prisoner in the cavern to which that shaft gave access.

CHAPTER XI

The men who had come into town for the purpose of co-operating with
Jerry O'Keefe and with Halloway had of course drifted in singly and
with no seeming of cohesion. It was vital that they should avoid any
manifest community of purpose, yet they were armed, ready and alert,
awaiting only a signal to gather out of scattered elements into a
close-knit force with heavy striking-power.

As they waited through the day for the call which did not come they
began to feel the dispirited gloom of men keyed to action and kept
interminably waiting--but none of them dropped away.

It was close to sundown when Brent himself arrived, and since he failed
to encounter Jerry O'Keefe on the streets he did not pause to search
for him, but went direct to the telegraph office. It had not been
disclosed to O'Keefe how close to the heart of the conspiracy was the
operator and the young man with the Irish eyes had not been stirred to
any deep suspicion in that quarter.

Brent himself had not considered it a reasonable assumption that to
such a powerful fellow as Halloway harm could come in so public a
place. Yet Halloway had meant to make that office his headquarters and
now Brent made it his first destination.

Through the open door and the smeared window spilled out a yellow and
sickly light.

Inside sat two men, but a glance told Brent that neither of them worked
the key. The pair were gaunt and sinister of aspect and they were not
town folk but creek-dwellers. One was evil-visaged to a point of
gargoyle hideousness. The other was little better, and he raised a
face to inspect the man in the door which some malignant sculptor might
have modeled in pure spite, pinching it viciously here and there into
sharp angles of grotesqueness. Yet in the eyes Brent recognized
keenness and determination.

The newcomer casually inquired for the station agent and one of the
fellows stared at him morosely, making no reply. The other however,
supplied the curt information: "He's done gone out ter git him a snack
ter eat."

"I'm looking for a man named Halloway," said Brent. "A big upstandin'
fellow. Maybe you men know him?"

To the mountaineers who walk softly and speak low by custom it seemed
that the city man spoke with a volume and resonance quite needless in
such narrow confines.

"I knows him when