el!

"Come along, Charles, my friend," he cried. "Come, let us try our
fortunes! Don't you want to stake some money upon your system against
me?"

The old figure leaped forward over the ledge, and in a moment Leroux
had grasped him and pulled him into the tunnel.

I whipped my revolver out and sent shot after shot across the chasm.
The sound of the discharges echoed and re-echoed along the tunnel wall.

But the projecting ledge of rock effectively screened Leroux--and
Duchaine as well, for in my passion I had been firing blindly, and but
for that I should undoubtedly have killed Jacqueline's father.

The mocking laughter of Leroux came back to me in faint and far-away
reply.

I saw the explanation of the man's presence now. He must have met
Duchaine that morning as the old man was flying or wandering aimlessly
along the tunnel. They had reached _le Vieil Ange_ together, and
Leroux had probably had little difficulty in inducing the witless old
man to take him back into the secret hiding-place.

It was lucky that we had not been there when Leroux discovered it. We
must have crossed the ledge only a moment or two before them.

I hastened back to Jacqueline, and encountered her in the passage just
where the light and darkness blended, standing with arms stretched out
against the wall to steady herself; and in her eyes was that look which
tells a man more surely than anything, I think, can, that a woman loves
him.

"Oh, I thought you were dead!" she sobbed and fell into my arms.

I held her tightly to support her, and I led her back to the gold cave.
In a few words I explained what had occurred.

"Now, Jacqueline, you must let me guide you," I said. "Don't you see
that there is no chance for us unless we leave your father for the
present where he is and make our own escape? We can reach Pere
Antoine's cabin soon after midday, and we can tell him your father is a
prisoner here. He would not come with us, Jacqueline, even if he were
here.

"And if he did, he might escape us on the way and wander back into the
tunnels again. Leroux has no cause to harm him. Surely you see that,
dear? He needs him--he needs his signature to the deed which is to
give him your father's share of the seigniory. Just as he wants you,
Jacqueline. And he shall never have you, dear. So I shall not let you
go back, or he would get you in the end. Unless----"

I stopped. But she knew what I had thought.

"Unless I kill my