.... Yes, I do, too," Moya corrected herself, voice
breaking under the stress of her emotion. "He has been put down there to
die."

"To die." Joyce echoed the words in a frightened whisper.

Dobyans laughed. "This is absurd. Who under heaven would put him there?"

A second flash of light burned in upon the girl. "That man, Peale--and
the other ruffian. They knew about the shipment just as you did. They
waylaid him ... and buried him in some old mine." Moya faced them
tensely, a slim wraith of a girl with dark eyes that blazed. She had
forgotten all about conventions, all about what they would think of her.
The one thing she saw was Jack Kilmeny in peril, calling for help.

But Lady Farquhar remembered what Moya did not. It was her duty to
defend her charge against the errant impulses of the heart, to screen
them from the callous eyes of an unsympathetic world.

"You jump to conclusions, my dear. Sit down and we'll talk it over."

"No. He called for help. I'm going to take it to him."

Again Verinder laughed unpleasantly. Moya did not at that moment know
the man was in existence. One sure purpose flooded her whole being. She
was going to save her lover.

India wavered. She, too, had lost color. "But--you're only guessing,
dear."

"You'll find it's true. We must follow that pipe and rescue him.
To-night."

"Didn't know you were subject to nerve attacks, Miss Dwight," derided
Verinder uneasily.

Moya put her hands in front of her eyes as if to shut out the picture of
what she saw. "He's been there for five days ... starving, maybe." She
shuddered.

"You're only guessing, Miss Dwight. What facts have you to back it?"
Bleyer asked.

"We must start at once--this very hour." Moya had recovered herself and
spoke with quiet decision. "But first we must find where the pipe
leads."

Bleyer answered the appeal in Lady Farquhar's eyes by rising. He
believed it to be a piece of hysterical folly, just as she did. But some
instinct of chivalry in him responded to the call made upon him. He was
going, not to save Kilmeny from an imaginary death, but to protect the
girl that loved him from showing all the world where her heart was.

"I'll be back inside of an hour--just as soon as I can trace that pipe
for you, Miss Dwight," he said.

"After all, Moya may be right," India added, to back her friend.

"It's just possible," Bleyer conceded.

CHAPTER XXII

THE ACID TEST

Jack Kilmeny opened his eyes to find