at an earlier hour than usual.

Finding Jack and Mike who had already returned, he told them of his
surmises, and arranged a set of signals,--a certain number of blows on
the rocks above them,--whereby he would give them warning if he found
indications of immediate danger, upon which they were to make their
escape in an opposite direction, by means of a tunnel, designated as
tunnel No. 3, where he would speedily join them.

On returning to the shaft, he found the majority of the men returning
to their work as usual, Maverick having given them no warning, partly
through his own cowardice, and partly through a determination that
Houston should have no hint of what was to follow.

Meanwhile, the long threatened storm was rapidly approaching with
signs of unusual severity. Heavy clouds had obscured the sun and were,
moment by moment, growing denser and blacker, while the heat was, if
possible, more intense than before. There was that ominous calm that
presages the coming of the tempest, while the air grew oppressive
almost to suffocation. In the distant canyons, far up among the
mountains, could be heard the muffled roaring of the wind, while the
branches began to sway occasionally under the first hot breath of the
approaching hurricane, which seemed like a blast from a furnace.

On through the fast-gathering storm rode Morton Rutherford, urging
forward his foam-covered horse, feeling by a certain, unerring
intuition, that that ride through the winding canyon was a race
between life and death. Having reached the camp, and left his
dripping, panting horse at the stables, he walked rapidly on to the
house, arriving shortly after Houston had left, and just in time to
meet Maverick, hurrying to the house for a bit of food, his work of
preparation having taken longer than he anticipated.

One look at his malignant, demon-like face convinced Rutherford that
he had arrived none too early, and that his own plans must be put in
execution very soon.

Pausing only long enough to exchange a few words with his brother and
the ladies, in reply to their eager questions, he hurried on to the
mines, he and they all unaware of a figure skulking behind him, in the
fast-deepening gloom, in the direction of the mills. From an open
window, aided by the peculiar condition of the atmosphere in those
altitudes before a storm, which transmits the slightest sound with
wonderful distinctness, Minty had overheard most of the conversation,
and wa