forest on a
dark night would not spy him out so long as the darkness covered him.
But he knew that at dawn he must find a better hiding place.

Just before daylight the woods were silent once more. The fugitive
understood that the searching parties had gone home to rest and to get
reinforcements in order to begin a more thorough hunt at dawn.

The greater part of the night the man had spent in trying to decide
where he should conceal himself before the daylight. He knew of but one
possible hiding place that was safe. He had tracked through the country
for miles to hide his treasures in the old coal mine, although he had
believed that he was absolutely free from suspicion. Who had betrayed
him? Not the old gypsy woman. The man did not consider her. But there
was--_the boy_!

As soon as the woods were free from the hunting parties the man slipped
down from his tree. It was a poor place of refuge, but he would crawl
into the disused coal mine, for the day at least, to guard his life and
his stolen property. He crept cautiously along. As soon as he could get
word to the gypsy woman they would both try to get away from the
neighborhood. Things were getting too hot for them both. And again,
there was _the boy_!

There was some one else afoot in the woods. The man could hear a
cat-like tread. Nearer stole the other prowler. There was another sound,
a faint call, which the man answered. An instant later the old gypsy
woman appeared. "I have been searching for you, lad. The boy says he has
got to see you."

It was hardly dawn, but a faint light had appeared in the sky that was
not daylight but its herald. A pause hung over the world that always
comes just before its awakening.

The man and woman hesitated just a moment at the opening of the old
mine. It was dreadful to shut themselves away from the daylight. The man
went in first, the old woman close behind him. But a few feet from the
entrance he staggered back; he had struck his foot against something.
The man's first thought was that some one had crept into the mine to
steal his treasure. A few seconds later he became more accustomed to the
dim light and saw the still figure of Eleanor.

The man and the woman stared at the girl as though they had seen an
apparition. She was so deathly pale it was not strange that they thought
at first that she was not alive.

Both the man and the woman kept close to the ground, so as not to inhale
the odor of the coal gas. The old g