sterious disappearance of Sybil, the visit of the
constables and militia-men in search of the burglars; the means that his
master and himself took to discover traces of Sybil through the instinct
of her little dog; the reasons they had, through the behavior of the
little Skye terrier, to believe that the lady had been taken down into
the vault and robbed and murdered; his own departure in search of tools
to take up the flagstones over the vault, and finally his return to the
scene of action to find the Haunted Chapel one mass of ruins.

"When I left marster he was sitting at the door of the vault, where we
thought the dead body of my poor murdered young mistess was hid; and
when I comed back I found this here!" sobbed Joe, pointing to the wreck.

"Good heaven! my man, this is a frightful story that you tell me! Sit
yourself down on the ground, and give me that pick which you are using
for a crutch! I must go to work here," exclaimed Captain Pendleton,
taking the pick from the negro and beginning to dig vigorously at the
mass of fallen stone and mortar.

The men and boys who had gone after implements now came hurrying back,
with picks, spades, hoes, rakes, etc., over their shoulders.

They immediately fell to work with a zeal and energy inspired by
curiosity and terror; and while the boys held the lighted pine knots
high above their heads, the men dug away at the mass with all their
might and main.

It was a wild scene, that deep glen; the heap of smoking ruins in the
midst, the affrighted crowd of workers around it, the flaming torches
held on high, the spectral gravestones gleaming here and there; the
whole encircled by dark, towering mountains, and canopied by a murky,
midnight sky!

In almost dead silence the fearful work went on.

The first body exhumed was that of the unfortunate Sheriff Benthwick,
quite dead. It was borne tenderly off to some distance, and laid down on
a bed of dried leaves beneath the shelter of an oak-tree.

Then four other bodies were dug out from the mass, among them that of
the bailiff Purley. And these were carried and laid beside that of the
sheriff.

And now, though the workmen dug away at the ruins as vigorously as ever,
they found nothing but broken timbers, stone, and mortar. No sign of
Lyon or Sybil Berners was to be seen. A wild hope sprang up in the heart
of Joe--a hope that in some miraculous manner his young master and
mistress had escaped this terrible destruction--a hop