s lie in the land-locked basin,
men and teams are to be seen in every direction, and everywhere is
heard the inspiring hum of many industries, though as yet not one
pound of copper has been brought up from the underground depths.

For weeks and months the work goes on with unabated energy. Peveril,
always willing to listen to advice and never ashamed to ask it from
those more experienced than himself, is everywhere, seeing to
everything and directing everything. Though he is thinner than when we
first met him, and his face has taken on an anxious look, it wears at
the same time an expression of greater manliness, self-confidence, and
determination.

Major Arkell has not yet appeared on the scene in person, and only the
young proprietor is known as the responsible head of all this
bewildering activity.

It is bewildering to outsiders to see the long-abandoned "Darrell's
Folly" suddenly transformed into one of the busiest mining-camps of
the copper region, for as yet no one, except Connell and the
Trefethens, knows the secret hopes of the proprietors. Even those who
are driving the new side-cut far beneath the surface, straight as a
die towards the prehistoric mine, though on a much lower level, know
not what they are expected to find.

At length three months have passed since the night on which Peveril
sold for ten thousand dollars an undivided half of his interest in the
Copper Princess. Since that time he has not once left the scene of his
labors, his hopes, and his fears. He has not even visited Red Jacket
since the morning, that now seems so long ago, when he left it in
charge of a gang of log-wreckers. Now the money put into this new
venture is very nearly exhausted. It will hold out for one more
pay-day, but that is all. And as yet only barren rock has come up from
that yawning shaft that seems to gulp down money with an appetite at
once inordinate and insatiable.

A huge pile of rock has accumulated about its mouth. If it were copper
rock it would be worth a fortune; as it is, it is worse than
worthless, for it contains only disappointed hopes. And yet a point
directly beneath the ancient workings has been reached and passed. Is
the quest a vain one, after all? Is Peveril's as great a folly as
Darrell's ever was? It would seem so; and the young proprietor's heart
is heavy within him.

He has just received the letter in which Mary Darrell declares the
Copper Princess to be a worthless property. With it in h