,' said he, 'that we're workin' on
at present, we can hear the picks o' the Bloody Thunder drawin' nearer
an' nearer; they'll break through to-morrer into one o' our ledges.'

"'What then?' I asked.

"'We're goin' to have a band o' men waitin' for 'em in the dark on our
side o' the ledge, an' everyone o' those men is goin' to be armed. The
moment that the picks o' the Bloody Thunder drive through an' the wall
goes down, the men o' the Fair-Haired Annie are goin' to fire.'

"'All right,' I said. 'I'm wi' you. I'll be there.'

"So next day I, an' twenty other men, were lowered down the shaft; an'
before we saw daylight again, the Fair-Haired Annie an' the Bloody
Thunder had gone to war. That was the first o' the underground fights
which took place on the Comstock. I picked my men, and paid 'em ten
dollars a day, an' called my gang 'The Avengers o' the Lord.' No one
'cept myself knew what that meant, but they learnt t' fear us, for we
fought to the death. Often when I was waitin' in the dark, listenin'
to the sound o' the rival miners comin' nearer, I would repeat to
myself the words, 'I will make a man more precious 'an gold; even a
man than the golden wedge o' Ophir.' An' when a poor chap lay dyin', I
would say to him those words."

"So you were sorry for the men you killed?"

"Oh, I was sorry, though that did small good to 'em. When the Lord's
bent on destroyin', He don't take much account o' persons. When the
first born o' Egypt were slain, He killed the evil wi' the
good--served 'em all alike. But it's heart-breakin' work to be made an
avenger o' the Lord."

"But I don't understand. What was there to avenge?"

"What was there to avenge? Why, the sinfulness o' those men, who was
diggin' out the power an' temptation to sin from the place where God
had hidden it. He meant that it should stay there forever; but now
it'll be handed down from generation to generation, as is King
Solomon's gold, temptin' our sons' sons to lose their souls as ours
were lost."

"And when all the fighting was done, did the soldiers get after you?"
asked Granger. But Beorn's eyes were closing, and the soul was
departing as day returned. Already the sun was leaping above the
horizon, and the sigh of the waking forest was heard. Granger seized
him by the arm and shook him--he had learnt only the least part of
that which he desired to know. "Was it for that crime that you fled,
till you came at last to Keewatin for safety?" he shouted. "