r,
derailing the engine.

It was day without, but dark within the sheds. A kindly woman with her
daughter occupied the berth opposite Hattie. She noticed the troubled
look on the girl's face and from that time on until they separated at
Cheyenne, did everything she could to make the journey pleasant. But
there was the ever present suspense and doubt.

It was ten hours before the train was again under way, but they had
lost the right of way on the road and were compelled to make frequent
stops on the sidings to allow other trains to pass.

As the train skirted the Great Salt Lake with its bleak and desolate
islands of rock rising in silhouette against the cold grey skies,
Hattie compared the scene to the feeling of utter desolation within
her soul.

A storm was raging on the Laramie plains and when the snow plow,
driven by the tremendous force of an extra engine in front, stuck fast
in the snow, she began to have some conception of the mighty force of
an avalanche, and the difficulty of reaching imprisoned men beneath
its weight.

The railroad ended at a little station in the San Luis valley and then
followed many miles of staging in a crowded coach. Everywhere the girl
met with the most profound respect and attention from fellow
passengers. She was always given the best seat in the coach, and
otherwise made as comfortable as circumstances would permit. Such was
the gallantry of these men of the frontier to the girl who was
traveling alone.

At the last stage station before reaching Saguache, she heard men
talking of the imprisoned miners in the Sangre de Christo mountains,
but she was unable to learn any of the particulars other than that
the relief party was still working. When, at last, she alighted at the
hotel in Saguache her first question was concerning the imprisoned
men. They will have them out in a few days if nothing happens was the
assurance given by the landlady. "They are alive, we know, for we can
see the smoke coming out from under the rock."

The two men under the snow slide had been the talk of the town for
days. Every day a new party went to the scene to relieve those who had
worked the day and night before, tunneling up the steep mountain side
through snow of an unknown depth.

When Hattie reached the tunnel she begged to be allowed to go to the
end of it where the men were working. She was assisted up the mountain
side by willing hands and when she reached the workers one of them
said: "T