cXt Gem Theatre.
9
CHAPTER X’-lll
uibltant v hlspc- for her cars, and his
face in the c rlfght scented io glow
with the reflection of that Inferno
which
smoldt red
in
his
evil
bosom. . . .
But one was silenced, the other
.quenched, all in a twinkling. His
-laughter turned on him in a flash of
j imperial ra<e.
I
Barcus caught snatches of the worn-
i an'., tirade.
I "Be silent!" b“ heard her say. “Be
• silent, do you l-.t cr? Dr n't over speak
to
n ain un' ~s v<— wjt me to re
place tm»t
1 gay, don't speak to
me! ... I am finished with you
once and for all time, never again
shull you pervert my nature to your
damnable purposes—never again shall
word or wish of yours drive me to
lift my har.d against a man who has
I never done von the least harm, though
your perse- utiou of hit t would have
acquitted him cf a charge of man-
slaughter in any court—on grounds of
selt-defense! . . . Understand me!”
she raged. “I’m through. Henceforth
I go my way. ard you yours . . .”
^'er voice broke Ebe clenched her
hands into two tight fists with the
effort at self-control, and lifted a
writhen face to the moonlight.
“Cod help us both!” she cried.
Camp-for the-Night.
“Well, gents!" the driver observed
I
Cheerfully, withdrawing head and
hands from long and Intimate com
munion with the stubborn genius be
neath the hood.
"1 reckon you-all
may's well make up yore minds to
christen this hych salubrious spot
Canip-for-the-Night.
You wont be
gain' no frrtheh—not just 't present.
Pulling this o'd wagon through them
.
desert rands back yondch has just
naturally broke' the heart of that en
gine!”
“What, precisely, is the trouble?”
Alan Law inquired, rousing from anx
ious preoccupa'lon.
I
"Plumb bust’ all to bell," the chauf
feur explained tersely.
“Nothing could be fairer, more ex
act and comprehensive than that,”
;
Tom Barcus commented.
'
Law nodded a head too weary to
respond to the other's humor.
His
worried eyes reviewed the scene of
the breakdown.
“What’s to be done?” Mr. Law won
dered aloud.
“Take it calm,” the affable chauffeur
advised. "Frettin’ won't get you-all
nothin’. If it was me, I'd call it a
day, make a Are, get them cushions
out of the cyah, and get some rest.
CHAPTER XLIV.
You can't do nothin’ till I get back,
anyway, and that won’t be much be
As In a Glass, Darkly.
fore sunup.”
Tho:~l;.fully Mr. Parous returned
“Where are you going?" Barcus de his attention to the lovers.
manded
It the evidence of hie senses did not j
"Walkin', friend; just walkin'—”
mBlr.'-'l him, ho was witnessing their -
[ first difference of opinion It wa« net
“What for?”
“To fetch help—leastways, onless t.n argumt nt acaie enough to deserve
yo’ve got some kick cornin' and 'ud the name of quarrel; but undoubtedly
the two were at odds upon some ques
ruther stop hyeh permanent'—’’
He turned off and busied himself tion—Rose insistent, Alan reluctant.
with preparations against his journey. i The last gave way in the end,
“It’s simply things like this make shrugged, returned to the car.
"I’m going back up the trail,” he
me beltelve this isn't, after all. noth
ing more nor less than a long-drawn- announced, and hesitated oddly.
"Feeling the need of some little ex
out nightmare," Barcus observed pen
ercise, no dor.bt,” Barcus suggested.
sively.
"Rose thinks it’s dangerous to stop
But Mr. Law was no more attend
ing: he had turned away and was just here,” Alan began to explain, ignoring
then standing by the running-board of the interruption.
"Miss Rose is right—eh. Miss Ju
the motor car and civilly explaining
to Miss Judith Trine the purpose of dith ?” Barcus inter; ala rd.
Judith no-bled darkly.
t'ae chauffeur's expedition.
“So i m going to s e if I can’t buy
Discovery of this circumstance
worked a deep wrinkle between the burros from the prosnectcr back there.
brows as well as into the humor of Rose says he has some—doesn’t know
how many—”
Mr. Barcus.
“Three will be enough,” Judith inter
Here, he promised himself, was a
posed.
"I mean, don’t get one for me.
situation to titillate the Comic Muse
Itself. He pointed cut in turn the sev I’m stopping here.”
“But—” Alan started to protest.
eral component ports: the motor car
She gave him pause with a weary
derelict in the hollow of those awful I gesture.
and tiltut hi'! —for ill the worl 1 liko
Tl< -"e! It s ro good arguing, Mr.
a mouse petrified with fright at finding
’
: I’- c -a ’ - up mj mind; I can be
ilself in the midst of a herd of ele
I •:’< t helpful b -re hv my father’s
phants; in tli< car, that ng: d monoma
! "I .e." th.- ass- it- -I. -nd i -dded at
niac, Mr. Seneca Tiine, author of ail | Trine with n ti nifleant s lile that
their woes and misadventures, gnash
I ma-l-i-red iiini. "He needs me—and
ing his teeth in impel' in r. gr to find
i:o harm can come to me: r«n pretty
himself fn close juxtaposition to an 1
well able to toko :■ e of myself!”
helpless to injure the ri n for whoso
At tills the Inner nt bystander
life he lusted v.ith an Insatiate pas
b-crtl-ed an unhea’d hut fervent little
sion; the latter tu-ndiug out .ide the
pm-er of thanksgiving, whose spirit
car, in polite convefsatiou with Mr.
he doubted not was shared by Alan.
Trine's mutinous Judith—talking to
For it stuck in the memory of Bar
her in the friendliest fn: hion imag
ens tbit their fii, -1, the prospector
inable, precisely as if she had not
(whose rhack bad sheltered Rose and
Barcus alter their transit of the desert
and pr’-r «o <i. . man made avalanch-*.
wlil'h had afforded this temporary im
munity f e-i pursuit) 1ml mentioned
in the hearing of Rose the fact that
his string of burros was limited to
three.
This, then, must have been the nub
of the lovers’ quarrel: Rose’s insfst-
ance that Judith be left behind, Alan’s
reluctance to consent to thl6 lest he
convict himself of the charge of rank
ingratitude, remembering the great
service his erstwhile antagonist had
done him.
If only Judith might not find cause
to change her mind!
He set himself sedulously to divert
Judith with the magic of bis conversa
tional powers—an offering indifferent
ly received.
He was still blithely
gossiping when Judith flung away to
her sister’s side.
The ensuing quarrel seemed but the
more portentous in view of the re
ar,.Int imposed upon themselves by
both parti- 3 tie rcto
He b-l -v'd, lie-ever. that a crlsl3
impended when the tinkle of mule-
bcl s sounded down the canyon road;
o d at this he threw discretion to the
winds and ran toward the two with
I hands upheld in mock horror and a
I : :a i:- r of humorous protest.
bio Doubt Which Came First in HI»
“Ladles, lad’es!” he plead«-1
“I
Esteem.
, bog of you both, let dogs delight to
bark and bite—”
fallen little short of compassing his
He got no farther: JudBh’s ears
death, not once, “but half a dozen
were an quick a3 his own; she, too,
times; Judith herself poised on the
had caught the sound of bells behind
runnjngboard and smiling down at the base of the hill. And of a sudden,
her victim with a warmth patently without another word, she turned and
even more than the warmth of friend flung away into the heavy thickets of
ship; and at some little distance, Rose, undergrowth that masked all the can
Mr. Law's fiancee and Judith's sister, yon, to either si-Je of the wagon-trail.
eating her heart out with jealousy of In a twinkling she had lost herself to
this new-sprung Intimacy between her view in their labyrinthine shadows
sister and her lover!
The remainder of that business was
"Bad business, my friend!" Barcut transacted rapidly enough
There
mentally apostrophized the unwitting were no preparations to be made;
Alan Law.
once Alan had ridden up with bis
He interrupted himself to no 1 know three burros, nothing remained but to
ingly and with profound conviction: mount and make off without delay.
"I knew it. Now it begins again!”
Before morning they were all rid
For Rose had abruptly taken a hand ing like
many hypnotized subjects,
in the affair, a gesture of exasperation fatigue b«mring so heavily on all their j
prefacing her call: “Alan!”
senses that none spoke or cared to I
To her Mr. Law turned instantly, speak.
with such alacrity that none who
Broad daylight surprised them in |
watched might dout t which of the two I this state, still stubbornly traveling;
I and shortly afterward showed them I
women came first in his esteem.
Nor was this wasted upon the under ’ cne place so perilous that it shocked
standing of Judith. Eyeing her nar ! them temporarily awake.
rowly-though furtively, Mr. Earoua
This was simply a spot where the
saw her handsome face darken omin , trail carme abruptly to an end on one j
. side of a cleft fn th’ hil'-» quite thirty i
ously.
And -her-father was as quick to feet wide and several hundred in I
recognize these portents of trouble ' depth, and was continued on the far |
and to seek to advantage himself o. i ther side, the cliaam being spanned by !
j a bridge of the simplest character— '
them.
His head craned out horlb'- «•" h' I no mere than a ft-ctway of beards
long, wasted neck as tie pitWMA a , bouad/vugeibei with ropes none too
substantial in seeming, with another
rope, breast high, to serve as a hand
rail
Alan tested the bridge cautiously.
It here him. He returned, helped Rose
to cross, and »ith her oi ce safely
landed on the other side, took his life
in his hands and. aided by a Barcus
unaffectedly affiicted with qualms,
somehow or other (neither of them
knew precisely how) persuaded the
burros to cross.
After that, though the way grew
more broad and easy and even showed
bjmptoms of a decline, they bad not
enough strength left to sustain
through another hour.
And what they thought good for
tune, opportunely at this pass, brought
th-in to a clearing dotted with the
buildings of an abandoned copper
n.lne. Not a soul was in evidence
tlere, but the rude structures offered
shelter for beast as well sb man.
Barely had they made Rose as com
fortable as might be upon the rough
plank flooring of one of the sheds
and tethered the burros out of eight,
when Alan collapsed as if drugged,
while Barcus, who had elected himself
to keep the first watch and purposed
doing it in a sitting position, with
his back against the door-jamb, felt
sleep overcoming him like a dense,
dark cloud.
CHAPTER XLV.
The Bowels of the Earth.
Awaking befell Mr. Barcus in a
fashion sufficiently sharp and startling
to render him indifferent to the beuefl-
cial effects of some eight hours of
dreamless slumber.
He discovered himself lying flat on
his face, with somebody’s inconsider
ate, heavy hand purposely grinding tho
said face into the aged and splintery
planks of the shed flooring. At thu
Gnashing His Teeth
same time other hands were busy
binding his own together by the
wrists and lashing the same to the
small of his back by means of a cord
passed around his middle, while his
natural if somewhat spasmodic efforts
to kick were sadly hampered by the
fact that nls ankles had already been
secured by means of half a dozen half
hitches and a square knot.
His hands attended to. his head was
released.
Promptly he lifted it and
essayed to yell; an effort rendered
abortive by the gag that was thrust
between his teeth the Instant his
jaws opened.
Then he heard a laugh, a cold,
mirthless chuckle.
Now the blood tff Thomas Barcus
ran cold (or he thought it did; which
amounts to much the same thing).
For if his senses had played fair, the
laugh he bad heard was the laugh of
Mr Marrophat, head-devil in the serv
ice of Seneca Trine
He tv.lsted his head to one side
and glancing along the floor, saw noth
ing but the wall. Twisted the other
way, at the cost of a Bplinter in his
nose, the effort was repaid by the dis
covery of Rose Trine in a plight like
his own—wrists and ankles bound,
gagged Into the bargain—the width of
the shed between them.
But of Alan Law, no sign. . . .
The heart of Mr. Barcus checked
momentarily; he shut his eyes and
Fhivered In an uncontrollable seizure
of dread.
Then, tormented beyond endurance
by the fears he suffered for the safety
of his friend, be began to wriggle and
squirm like a crippled snake, pain
fully inching bls way across the floor
toward Rose—with what design, heav
en alone knows! Dimly his men
tal vision comprehended the bare pos
sibility of his being able, with bis fast
numbing Angers, to work loose the
knots at Rose's wrists; but deep in
his heart he knew ibis to be nothing
but forlornest hope . . .
With infinite pains be had con
trived to bridge the dtstance by half,
or possibly not quite so much, when
a dark body put the sunlight of the
open doorway into temporary eclipse.
Another followed it Boots clumped
heavily on the flooring
The laugh
sounded again, apparently in ironic ap
pr« elation of Mr. Barcus' efforts. Two
pairs of bands seized him, one be
neath the aic-lduw, Uiu other be
“What’s the rood of that? V.'c’re |
I On * Is c«nsi ! ration he di w Roso
fan eneu'ih as it is!”
"Simply to make assurance dcubly With him back; to (1. bul' head
When 1
i
so
’ ■ a
sure by causing a cav'-in
“I seem to r -ii' it- r h-aring or minutes !>' -ide the bulkhead, the wa-
rending, some j*l ■ 'e tin- ti:un. Is have ti r mounted t! e 1 « ad of a sit .ht rise
perhuy ti n ft -I !■ hind them, and
two ends If thu s tni”. th f.nr end
pound
down in ev- • deeier volume
of this ought to b" ub ut the safest
to back up a ; linst the barrier.
place wl i n that expl. sien happens—
it was wa -t deep, however, before
if it ever does.”
th«y n treated to the head ot that
“Scnictlihii in t'n””
rise.
"Got any match-"” Bircus In
Half tin hour later it was waist
quired, as Alan la.r.billy helped Ruso
deep there, on the highest spot in the
to h« r fe't
tu.'nel.
"Never one."
In fifteen minutes more It had
"Nor I. We'll have to fe 1 our way
rea< hed th« ir chins. Ami they stood
ninng. Let me lead. If I step over the
v. i h lo ad a;..¡inst the roof ot the tuu-
brink cf a pit er anything. I'll try to
nel.
yell and warn y -u in time.”
Holding Ros«* close to him. “Alan
Alan causlit his friend's hand In
kissed her lips, that were ns cold as
passing and pres'-e l it warmly—a ca
death. *
ress eloquent of hl.i gratitude to Bar
Then, fumbling under wa’er. he
ci’s for taking the! - p ril lightly, or
found the haml of the man at his side.
pretending to. for the sake of R sc.
I
The water lapped his lips like a
A ticklish business, that—groping
blind hand . . .
their way through blackness so
*•••••«
opaoue that it seemed as palpable as
In the tunnel that branched off from
a pool of ink. And haste was indi the main shaft, beyond the bulkhead,
|
cated; they stumbled on with what some thirty minutes before this junc
’
caution was lom ille atainst pitfalls—•
.
ture, a candle had guttereil in its stick.
a gingerly scramble. Ti en an elbow
I
In the tunnel —sersed rather than felt
or seen—cut them off from direct
communication with the bulkhead,
and at the same t'me opened up a
shaft of davllght, strik’ng down
through that pitchy darkness like a
column of fine gold
Cries of joy, amazement. Incredulity
choking In their throa’s, th-y stu n-
bled forward, gained the spot immedi
ately below the shaft, leaked upward,
dazzled, to see blue sky liko a coin of
heaven's minting far above them, at
tho end of a Ion'- and almost perpendi
I
cular tunnel, wide enough to permit
I
the passage of a ninn's body, and lined
I
with wooden ladders.
I
The end of the lowermost ladder
hung within easy reach from the floor
of the tunnel.
But even as Alan lifted his hands to
grasp the bottom rung the opening at
the top of the shaft was temporarily
obscured.
Thrilled with apprehension, he hesi
tated: Marrophat was up there, he lit
tle doubted; hardly like that one to
overlook the ladder-shaft In preparing
Alan Negotiates for the Burros,
the tunnel to bo a living tomb.
"What is it?" Rose demanded at his left carelessly thrust into the wall by
elbow, in a shaken whisper.
Marrophat’s lieutenant, and guttering,
“Nothing,” he lied instantly, and bad dropped a flaming wick into a llt-
seizing the bottom rung, swung him tle heap of bone-dry ilebriB. This last
self up. “But wait for me till 1 signal [ flamed, licked hungrily at the timber
the coast’s clear." ho warned hcLuo ing that upheld th«’ falls of the tunnel.
committing him If finally to the as Tho timbering caught fire without de
lay. In a space of timo incredibly
cent.
Marrophat or no Marrophat at tho brief tho flames were spreading right
top, there was nothing for him to d > and left, tho tunnel was a vault of
but to gra p the nettle «¡anger with a blistering fury.
steady hand unflinching Even though
As Alan said his Inst mute farewell
he wore shot d ad on emerging from tq I! a ■■ nd Barcus, the firo spread
the shaft it were bitter than to dio out In tho bottom of tho shaft and in
down there, like a rat In a trap. . . . vaded the-powder room.
Ho h id climbed npt more than half
Alan hod guessed aright at Mnrro-
a doz'-n rnng3 when a voice hailed , i hat's de i n; tho keg of blasting pow-
from above:
' der was less than an t'lghlh full; Its
“Law—Oh. Mis‘cr I aw. I say—don’t explosion «quid not possibly have ef-
come up—here's a present for you.”
ficted the cave-in Alan had at first
Tausing without answer, he looked I f •'tired.
tip. A f< w droits Cf water splattered
But what Marrophat had overlooked
his face, like heavy rain. Almost im was tho proximity to the keg of some
mediately the blue sky was per several sticks of dynamite, masked by
manently eclipsed: a heavy cascade of ii film of earth that had fallen from
water, almost a solid column, shot the crumbling walls.
down tho shaft with terrific force
'
When tho blazing fuse dropped
I’alf-drowrc 1 and wholly dazed, ho sparks into the blasting powder this
felt himself picked up and dragged last exploded right willingly and the
away from the waterfall.
dynamite took its cuo without the
in Impot-snt Rage.
Then, as his senses ch ar« 1. Im com- i least delay.
wedging and blocking it with timbers. prehen led the fact that the tunnel
The resultant detonation was ter
! These ceased and the silence was was a'ready filling; tlrit where they rific. Tin' bulkhead was crushed In
i broken by Alan’s voice.
stood it was already ankle deep; while like an eggshell barrier. Part of the
|
“Barcus!”
the watT continued to fall without va'.ls fell in tint the tunnels end shaft
The latter grunted soulfully by way bint of letup.
remained intact. The released flood
of answer: he could do I. > more.
; streamed out and spread swiftly to the
"I’ve worked my gag loos •,' Alan
CHAPTER XLVI.
' furthist recesses of the burning tun
■ pursued in a hurried whit per, "but my
nel I>« use clouds of sti .ini filled that
' hands are tied behind my back. Are
F'ocd and Fire.
place of terror as the ill«. j wire extin
■ yours? Grunt once for ‘yes’.”
Scrcnn l::': to t ake himself heard guished.
I
Dutifully Braeus grunted a solitary above the roar of tne deluge, Barcus
Swept with tho stream ns it poured
1 grunt.
yammered ,:i Alan's ear:
out cf the tunn 1, Alan contrived
"Then roll over rn yo”r face and
"That «! 'I' I s f<! 1 tho reser throughout to retain ills bold round
I give me a chance t > work them fre e voir- opened the sluicegates—turned
tile Whist of Ros«
Barcus shot past
that way. given I! ne . . .”
it into that shaft! We're done for!” film tn ; ■ en in the darkness. It was
"Time!” was tb > mlr hleas thought Alan had no argument with which to rot until Alan h ul contrived to catch
of Barcus. “Haven’t we got e. 11 eter gainsay hi > Silently getting on his i
or i. .-.'"I tin h r and stay himself
nity?”
fe« t, si!' ntly he rr<.p««l ft r R< e in tho and hi almost witless burden beneath
For all that, ho wv’el no ttmo oirknrr« n:m ntarl!; bi omlncmo'e tie- ci" .th of the shaft that he dlscoV'
whn ver In < b- vi g Al Ts r'ccsHnn den e as th • fall of watqr shut out ered Lurcus alive, If almost unrecog-
•—then lav for up-, .rd of ten mlui.t-s tho Hi ht, ami drew her awav with him, i ¡/.able In his mask of mold and soot,
v fth his fnon fn ' e mold of ’h< tunre 1 v;> the slight In !in ■ that I d back to battling back toward the shaft ugalnst
v hi'» Alan (' ew« I and spat and the bulkhead.
. the kneedaep tide.
chewed end >'-<t a: d chewed again at
The hour that followed livid ever
Half bllnde'l and stifled as he was by
the rcp«-3 rmnd the wrists of his it: his memory as nn hour In hell. No the reek of steam and powder fumes,
friend
ray of li pe lightened Its impenetrable 1 Alan struggled with himself until hl»
If It were In truth no more than ten blackness. lie could say nothing to , wits were passably clear.
minutes It rce i d upward of an l our comfort th«- girl; bravely though she
I:nme<yately before him dangled the
k-foro the 1 - ads p ew slack and Bar strove to keep up her heart, time and
hoisting bucket, and rope.
cus with an effort that cost hlrn much again she shook in his arms like a mad
Surrend'-In’; the care of Rose to
of the akin on on«; wrist worried a thing, when panic dread caught h< r
hand free, then loosed the other, re bj' the n« « k ns a terrier catches a rat. Banus, Alan climbed into the bucket
and stared upward, examining thu
moved an«l spat cut his gag and set
To die there, In tbs darkness, Ilk«- so
hastily about fre«ing his friend. That many noxious animals trapped in a walls of the Bhatt for a way to the
top.
took b F a few Instants little more wellt . . .
There was none other than the moHt
than was needed to rid Bose of her
The water mounted rapidly. With
dlfilcult; gaps too great to be bridged
bonds.
in five minutes ft drove them back to
That much accomplished, a paure the elbow In tho tunnel; within ten it by climbing showed In the wooden
of profound consternation followed lapped thefr ankles as they lingered : ladders.
'I ho one f«: lble route was vl.i ths
The darkn«i»s was absolute in the tun there, doubting which was tho greater
nel, Jimmy having taken the candle peril, to advance or to stand fast and rope. And tle re was nobody at the
away with him; and Its silence was let the flooding tide snuff out tho fir< ( fop to work tho windlais and Alan
rendered uncanny by the sobs an«l mur of life. To return to the n< Ighbor- hoped there would be nobody to op
murs of the lovers, that sounded tome- hood of the bulkhead wus to court the pose his essay.
He addressed himself to the task
how- fearfully remote and Inhuman to death Indi« at« <i by the fur«.' and tbo
, without murmuring—lifted himself up
; Barcus—who had turned Immediately keg of blasting powder . .
on tho rope, wouml It rotiml one leg,
to the bulkhead and was. without the
Of a sudden tho thought crossed
n that heartbreaking climb.
' slightest hop«-, groping about its joints Alan’s mlml that Marrophat had ar and bi
How be accomplished it he never
and crevices in search of some way ranged the latter solely to keep them
knew. That it must b accomplished
of forcing it. . . .
I away from tho bulkhead. Now that ho
was his ono, all-absorbing thought.
“Barcus—old man!”
thought of It, he felt certain that th«»
And somehow, by some almost super
“Yes?”
powder room had been deliberately
human effort, it was eventually accom
“Have you any idea—“
disclosed to him by Jimmy.
plished.
"Devil a one!”
Probably, then, the keg and fusa
He arrived at tho top of the shaft
A pause . . ,
wore but stage properties—or pos
far too exhausted to show surprise
"Did you notice what that black- sibly . . .
whin, falling In half-fainting condl-
! guard had fixed up?”
|
Whether or no. v a» d«a h In one
tlcn within two feet of tho brink, ho
| “What do you mean?"
form preferable to the other?
“Why—at the bottom of the shaft— i He was decidedly of tho opinion saw Judith Trine running like mad
I got only a glimpse coming In the that ft were better to be extinguish'd i licroBS tho
But without her aid ho would not
door of the powder room was open, once and for all time, In the spar«? of
and I saw a fuse set to th» top of a a second, annihilated by an explosion, , v l hlti I i..i s have be« n able to work
i th w'ndb"» and hit Rose and Bar-
O*
pv A UvZ , • •*
I fcbau to dlw thus lluguriaily.
' out to the suifaco.
no th the knees H--d *•“ y»-.«, luggc 1
laboriously out tuto ih< sunlight ear
ned a con.-lui lu'.ile disiance, and de-
I « sit d uuoeremonioubly within a few
feet cf the m ;h of th.- abandon« 1
mine just -it th * moment when he h d
sat'sfed himself thu’ the
put peso
of his captors was simply to throw
him into the black well.
He wasted a lock of appeal on tho
frozen mask of villainy that was Mar-
rophat’s (who bore th • burden of Bar
cus' head and shoulders) and got
laugh- d at for all Uta pains.
Thea he was lilt to himself ones
more, but only for a few moments;
the interval ended when the two ap
peared again, this time bringing llove
In similar fashion.
Not until she had been put down bo
ride him did he discover that Alan
was likewise a captive—trussed to a
tree at some distance.
Tho remaining arrangements of
their captors were swiftly and deftly
consummated, though their design re
mained obscure to Mr. Barcus until
he, after Rose, was dumped like a halo
into a huge bucket, ai d therein by
means of rope and windlass lowered
to the bottom of the shaft—a descent,
he estimated shrewdly, of something
like a hundred feet.
A hideous screeching followed, the
protests of rusty and greaseless ma
chinery. Twisting 1,1s neck, Barcus
saw the dim opening of the shaft
slowly closing, as if a curtain wore
being drawn down over it. Jimmy
was closing the bulkhead door, leav
ing them definitely prisoners, beyond
human aid, there in that everlasting
black hole. . . .
With a final squeal and thump the
bulkhead settled into place. A con-
fusion of remote sounds thereafter in-
dicated that Jimmy (with, perhaps,
Marrophat’s assistance i was making
the bulkhead fast beyond question—
1