touched her small gloved hand then, and she did
not draw it away. His fingers moved slowly under hers. There was no
resistance. At last his hand closed with a tender pressure,--only to
release her again. For there had come a laugh--shy, embarrassed,
almost fearful--and the plea:

"Can we go back where Harry is? Can I see the strike again?"

Obediently Fairchild led the way, beyond the big cavern, through the
cross-cut and into the new stope, where Harry was picking about with a
gad, striving to find a soft spot in which to sink a drill. He looked
over his shoulder as they entered and grinned broadly.

"Oh," he exclaimed, "a new miner!"

"I wish I were," she answered. "I wish I could help you."

"You 've done that, all right, all right." Harry waved his gad. "'E
told me--about the note!"

"Did it do any good?" she asked the question eagerly. Harry chuckled.

"I 'd 'ave been a dead mackerel if it 'ad n't," came his hearty
explanation. "Where you going at all dressed up like that?"

"I 'm supposed," she answered with a smile toward Fairchild, "to go to
Center City at midnight. Squint Rodaine 's there and Maurice and I are
supposed to join him. But--but Mr. Fairchild 's promised that you and
he will arrange it otherwise."

"Center City? What's Squint doing there?"

"He does n't want to take the train from Ohadi for some reason. We 're
all going East and--"

But Harry had turned and was staring upward, apparently oblivious of
their presence. His eyes had become wide, his head had shot forward,
his whole being had become one of strained attention. Once he cocked
his head, then, with a sudden exclamation, he leaped backward.

"Look out!" he exclaimed. "'Urry, look out!"

"But what is it?"

"It's coming down! I 'eard it!" Excitedly he pointed above, toward
the black vein of lead and silver. "'Urry for that 'ole in the
wall--'urry, I tell you!" He ran past them toward the fissure, yelling
at Fairchild. "Pick 'er up and come on! I tell you I 'eard the wall
moving--it's coming down, and if it does, it 'll bust in the 'ole
tunnel!"

CHAPTER XXIII

Hardly realizing what he was doing or why he was doing it, Fairchild
seized Anita in his arms, and raising her to his breast as though she
were a child, rushed out through the cross-cut and along the cavern to
the fissure, there to find Harry awaiting them.

"Put 'er in first!" said the Cornishman anxiously. "The farther the
safer. Did