re in the kitchen. She seemed inspired
with a new hope, and presently she moved to Mrs. Hardy's side again.

'Do you think he will die?' she asked.

'I do not think so, dear. It is brain fever, I believe.'

'How good you are--you whom he has wronged so cruelly!

She ceased speaking and gripped her companion's arm. The latch of the
back door clicked, a step sounded upon the kitchen floor, and the next
moment Detective Downy appeared within the room. He glanced from the
women to the bunk, and then strode forward and laid a hand upon Ephraim
Shine.

'This man is my prisoner,' he said.

Shine sat up again, moving his arms and muttering:

'Yes, yes, down the old mine; that's it! Let me go. It's hid in the old
mine--my gold, my beautiful gold!'

'You cannot take him in this state,' said Mm. Hardy; 'it would be
brutal.'

The detective examined him closely, and, being satisfied that the man was
really ill and unlikely to escape, went to the kitchen door and blew a
shrill blast of his whistle in the direction of the quarries. When he
returned Chistina was on her knees by the bunk, as if praying, and Mrs.
Hardy was bathing the patient's temples. After a few minutes Sergeant
Monk rode up and joined them in the room.

'Here is our man,' said Downy quietly. Send Donovan for the covered-in
waggon at the hotel. We will have to take him on a mattress.'

'Shot?' cried Monk.

'No; off his head. Send a couple of your men in here. I think I'll get my
hands on that gold presently.'

The sergeant withdrew, and Downy touched Chris on the shoulder.

'It's a bad business, miss,' he said. 'You made a plucky fight, but this
was inevitable. Will you tell me where he was hidden?'

Chris arose and stood with her back to the wall and answered him in a
firm voice. She understood the futility of further evasion.

'He hid in the tank,' she said. 'It has a false bottom, and you get in
from below.'

The detective expressed incredulity in a long breath.

'Well, that fairly beats me,' he said. 'When did he fix the tank?'

'I do not know. I had no idea it was done until the night of the arrest
of Rogers.'

At this moment Casey and Keel entered.

'Stand by the man, Casey,' said the detective. 'Keel, follow me.'

Downy went straight to the tank and, creeping under it, struck a match
and examined the floor above on which it rested. Two of the boards had
been moved aside, and in the bottom of the tank there was an opening
about eighte