undred and fifty feet in the depths of a mountain. The cavern was ten
feet in height and fifty feet in length. The projecting ledges of rock
made innumerable shelves on which a merchant might have displayed his
wares.

The old woman was too shrewd for that. Her jugs were carefully planted
in the ground behind two fallen boulders, and their hiding-place
concealed by a layer of drift which she had gathered from the edge
of the water. She had taken this precaution against the day when some
curious explorer might stumble on her secret as she had found it hunting
ginsing roots in the woods overhead. Her foot had slipped suddenly
through a hole in the soft mould. She peered cautiously below and could
see no bottom. She dropped a stone and heard it strike in the depths.
She made her way down the side of the crag and found the opening through
the still eddying waters. The hole through the roof she had long ago
plugged and covered with earth and dry leaves.

She carried her lantern and spade to the further end of her storehouse
and dug a hole in the earth about two feet in depth. The earth she
carefully placed in a heap.

"That's the place!" she giggled excitedly.

She left her lantern burning, dropped again on the soft, mould-covered
earth and quickly emerged on the stone banks of the wide, still pool.
Her hand high extended above her head, she waded through the water until
she touched the heavy ceiling, lowered her body again to a stooping
position and rapidly made her way out into the bed of the brook.

She passed eagerly along the babbling path and stopped with sure
instinct at the tree beside whose trunk she had placed her shoes.

In five minutes she had made her way through the woods and reached
the house. She tipped into the kitchen and stood in the doorway or the
living-room watching her sleeping guest. The even breathing assured her
that all was well. Her plan couldn't fail. She listened again for the
sobs in the shed-room.

She was sure once that she heard them. Five minutes passed and still she
was uncertain. To avoid any possible accident she tipped back through
the kitchen, circled the house and placed her ear against the crack in
the logs.

The girl was sobbing--or was she praying? She crouched beside the wall,
waited and listened. The night wind stirred the dead leaves at her feet.
She lifted her head with a sudden start, laughed softly and bent again
to listen.

CHAPTER XX. TRAPPED

The sobbing