"I will throw a gleam from my magic lamp, and through your magic lenses,
Mrs. Gray, you will see that my spell has worked," announced the
strange character. He flashed an electric pocket lamp on the face of a
man standing facing the party.

The Overlanders gasped.

The circle of light drew the face of Tom Gray out of the darkness.

"Tom!" cried Grace, snatching off the spectacles and running to her
husband. "Oh, Tom, how could you keep silent so long when you knew how
disturbed we were?"

"I could not well do otherwise, Grace, seeing that I was bound just as
Mr. Long was, but with the added burden of a gag in my mouth. He came in
after I did, and we managed to get acquainted despite my gag. I could
mumble and he got the mumble. After you released him he freed my mouth
of the gag and cut the rope that held me helpless."

"You see my magic specs saw that Captain Gray had been clubbed and
kidnapped, and I was trying to find him when I was put to sleep and
dumped in here to await further disposition. Have the specs fulfilled
all that I promised, Mrs. Gray?"

"A hundred fold," laughed Grace happily.

"No charge, thank you. We aim to please our customers. Having an
appointment late this evening to fit a pair of specs of another variety
than you have seen me display, I will bid you good-evening. If I do not
see you again in reality, I shall many times smile at you ladies with my
eyes and my heart, and, should you at such times chance to be wearing
the magic specs, you will see the smile and recall the smiler."

"Won't you shake hands?" asked Miss Briggs.

"Thank you. I have said my good-byes."

"At least, Mr. Long, before you leave us, please tell us who and what
you are," urged Nora.

"With pleasure. I am Jeremiah Long, the Mystery Man, and spectacles is
my line. All hay is grass and grass is hay. I'm here to-morrow and gone
to-day." His voice seemed to fade away in the darkness, the last words
sounding far away and barely heard. The Overland Riders did not know
whether he had gone out or plunged deeper into the cave, to emerge from
some exit the existence of which they were unaware.

"What a queer man," murmured Anne Nesbit. "He almost gives one the
creeps. I wish we knew who and what he is."

"I think Tom knows," spoke up Grace. "Let's get out of this horrid
place."

"Yes, I do know. To-night he expects to accomplish what he has been
working towards for many months, a round-up of the leading moonshiners