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Show : CROSS-CUT PfeM Courtney t ILLUSTRATIONS net now, coughing tightly as the sharp smoke of the dynamite cut their lungs a long Journey that seemed as many miles instead of feet Then with a shout Fairchild sprang forward, for-ward, and went to his hands and knees. It was there before Mm all about him the black, heavy masses of lead-silver lead-silver ore, a great, heaping, five-ton pile of It where It had been throw out by the tremendous force of the explosion. It seemed that the whole great floor of the cavern was covered with It, and the workmen shouted with j Fairchild as they seized bits of the ! precious black stuff and held It to the light for closer examination. "Look J" The voice of one of thens was high and excited. , "Yon can see the fine strenks of silver sticking outl It's high-grade and plenty of it!" But Fairchild paid little attention. He was playing In the stun, throwing it in the air and letting It fall to the floor of the cavern again, like a boy with a new sack of marbles, or a child with its building blocks. Five tons t "My partner's Harry Harklna, He's due for trial Friday, and he's disappeared. disap-peared. The mine is up as security. You can see what will happen unless I csn substitute a cash bond for the amount due before that time. Isn't that sufficient r "tt ought to be. But as I said, I want to see where the ore comes from," "You'll see In the morning -if I've got it," answered Fairchild with a new hope thrilling in his voice. "All that I have so far Is an assay of some drill scrapings. I don't know how thick the vein Is or whether It's going to pinch out In ten minutes after we strike It. But I'll know mighty soon," Every cent that Robert Fairchild possessed in the world was in his pockets two hundred dollars. After he had' paid his men for their three days of labor, there would be exactly twenty dollars left But Fairchild did not hesitate. To Fan-ell's office he went and with him to an Interview, In chambers, with the Judge. Then, the necessary permission having been granted, he hurried back to the mine i "Well?" he questioned, "what's up?" "My . partner has disappeared. I want to report to you and see U I can get some help." "Disappeared? Who?" "Harry Harkins. He's a big Cor-ntshmun, Cor-ntshmun, with large mustache, very red face, about sixty years old, I should Judje " - "Wait a minute," Bardwell's eyes narrowed. "Ain't he fie fellow I arretted ar-retted in the Blue Poppy mine the night of the Old Times dancer "Yes." "And you say he's disappeared? When does his trial come up?" "A week from tomorrow." "And he's disappeared." A slow smile came over the other man's lips. "I don't think It will help much to start any relief expedition for him. The thing to do is to get a picture nnd a general description and send It around to the police In the various parts of the country I That'll be the best way to find him!" Fnlrcnlld's teeth gritted, but he could not escape the force of the argument, ar-gument, from the sheriffs standpoint For a moment there was silence, then Foot after foot, the muck was torn away, as FalrebUd, with pick and shovel, forced a tunnel through the grent mass of rocky debris which choked the drift Onward onward at last to make a fail opening In the barricade, and to lean close to It that he might shout again. But still there was no answer. Feverish now, Fairchild worked with all the reserve strength that was in him. Behind that broken mass. Fairchild felt sure, was his partner, torn, bleeding throuah the effects of some accident, he did not know what, past answering his calls, perhaps dead. Greater became the hole In the cave-In j soon It was large enough to admit his body. Seizing his carbide car-bide lamp, Fairchild made for the opening nnd crawled through, hurrying hurry-ing onward Howard the chamber where the stope began, calling Harry's name at every step, In vain. The place was empty, except for the pile of stone and refuse which had been torn away by dynamite explosions In the hanging hang-ing wall, where Harry evidently had f CHAPTER XV Continued. 12 ; "Fell, Son, now you can hurry back and begin cutting Into a fortune. If that vein's only four Inches wide, you've got plenty to keep you for the teat of your life. Run along." f And Fairchild "ran." Whistling and happy, he turned out of the office of i tfce Sampler and Into the street his Oat open, his big cap high on his fcped, regardless of the sweep of the cold wind and the fine snow that it carried on tta Icy breath. The walt- of months was over, and Fairchild at last was, beginning to see his dreams eome true. Bo this was the reason that Ro-dalne Ro-dalne had acknowledged the value of he mine that day IB court I This was the reason for the mysterious offer of fifty thousand dollars and for the later one of nearly a quarter of a ihllllon! Rodalne had known; Rodalne Ro-dalne had Information, and Rodalne fcttd been willing to pay to gain pos-acowlon pos-acowlon of what now appeared to be a bonanisa. But Rodalne had failed. And Fairchild had won I and the night was not yot over I Five j tons, and the vein had not yet shown Its other side I Back to work they went now. Again through the hours the drills bit Into the rock walls, while the ore car clattered clat-tered along the tram line and while the creaking of the block and tackle at the shaft seemed endless. In three days, approximately forty tons of ore must come out of that mine and work must not cease. Morning, and in spite of the sleep-laden sleep-laden eyes, the heavy aching In his head, the tired drooping of the shoulders, shoul-ders, Fairchild tramped to the board- , ing house to notify Mother Hwarrt and ask for news of Harry. There ', had been none. Then he went on. to wait by the door of the Sampler until Rlttson. the owner, should appear, nnd , drag him away up the hill, even before be-fore he could open ud for the mornlnir. and Into the drift, there to find the last of the muck being scraped away from beneath the site of the cave-in. Fairchild paid ofT. Then he turned to the foreman. "How many of these men are game to take a chance?" "Pr.-tty near all of 'era if there's any kind of a gamble to It" "There's a lot of gamble. I've got Just twenty dollars in my pocket-enough pocket-enough to pay each man one dollar apiece for a night's work if my hunch doesn't pun out. If It does pnn, the wages are twenty dollars a day for three days, with everybody, Including myself, working like b It Who's game?" The answer came In unison. Fair-child Fair-child ledjthe way to the chamber, seized a hammer and took his place. "There's two-hundred-dollar ore back of this foot wall If we enn break Jn tad start a new stope," he an- "There It is!" he exclaimed, as he led him to the entranve of the chamber. cham-ber. "There tt Is: take all yon want of It and assay It !" BIttson went forward Into the crosscut, cross-cut, where the men were drilling even at new holes, and examined the vein. . Already It was three feet thick, and there was still ore ahead. One of the miners loked up. "Just finishing up on the cross-cut," he announced, as he nodded toward his drill. "I've Just bitten Into the foot wall on the other side. Looks to me Mke the vein's about five feet thick as near as I can measure It." "ilnd " BIttson picked tp a few samples, examined them by the light of the .arbldes and tossed them away j the miner came closer to the desk. "Sheriff," said he as calmly as possible, pos-sible, "you have a perfect right to give that sort of view. That's your business to suspect people. However, some sort of an accident happened at the mine this afternoon a cave-in or an explosion that tore out the roof of the tunnel and I am sure that my partner is wandering among the hills. Will you help me to find him?" The sheriff wheeled about In his chair and studied a moment Then he rose. "Guess I will," he announced. "It can't do any harm to look for him, anywuy." Half an hour later, aided by two deputies who had been summoned from their homes, Fairchild and the sheriff left for the hills to begin the search for the missing Harry. Late the next afternoon, they returned to town, tired, their horses almost crawl-lug crawl-lug In their dragging pace after six-teen six-teen hours of travel through the drifts of the hills and gullies. Harry had not been found, and so Fairchild reported when, with drooping shoulders, shoul-ders, he returned to the boarding house and to the waiting Mother Howard. How-ard. And bath knew that this time Harry's disappearance was no Joke, as It had been before. They realized that back of It all was some sinister reason, some Mystery which they could not solve for the present at least. That night, Fairchild faced the future and made his resolve. There was only a week now until Harry's case should come to triaL Only a week until the failure of the defendant to appear should throw the deeds of the Blue Poppy mine Into the hands of the court, to be sold for the amount of the bait And In spite of the tact that Fairchild now felt bis mine to be a bonanza, unless some sort of a miracle could happen before that time, the mine was the same as lot-1. True, It would go to the highest bidder at a public sale and any money brought In above the amount of ball would be returned to him. But who would be that bidder? Who would get the mlne perhaps for twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars, when It now was worth millions? Certainly not he. Unless something should bap-pen bap-pen to Intervene, unless Harry should return, or In some way Fairchild could raise the necessary five thousand thou-sand dollars to furnish a cash bond and again recover the deeds of the Blue Poppy, he was no better off than before the strike was made. Long he thought, finally to come to his conclusion, conclu-sion, and then, with the air of a gambler gam-bler who has placed bis last bet to win or lose, he went to bed. shot away the remaining refuse In a last effort to see what lay In that direction stones and mock which told nothing. On the other side Fairchild stared blankly. The hole that he had made Into the foot wall had been filled with dynamite and tamped, as though ready for shooting. But the charge had not been exploded. Instead on the ground lay the remainder re-mainder of the tamping paper and a short foot and a half of fuse, with Its fulminate of mercury cap attached, where It hnd been pulled from Its berth by some great force and hastily stamped out And Harry-Harry Harry-Harry was gone I CHAPTER XVI It was as though shades-of the past had come to life, again, U repent In the Twentieth century happening of the Nineteenth. There was only one difference no form of a dead man now lay against the foot wall, to rest there more than a score of years until un-til it should come to light, a pile of hones In tlme-shredded clothing. And as he thought of It, Fairchild remembered remem-bered that the enrthly remains of "Slssle" Larsen hnd lain within almost a few feet of the spot where he had drilled the prospect hole Into the foot wall, there to discover the ore that promised bonanza. But this time there was nothing and no clue to the mystery of Harry's disappearance. Fairchild suddenly strengthened with an Idea. Perhaps, after all, he had been on the other side of the cave-In and had hurried on out of the mine. But In that event would be not have waited for his return, re-turn, to tell him of the accident? However, How-ever, It was a chance, and Fairchild took It Once more he crawled through the hole that he had made In the cave-In cave-In and sought the outward world. I Then he hurried down Kentuckv Won I But suddenly he realized that there was a blnnkness about It all. He had won money, It Is true. But all the money tn the world could not free him from the taint that had Been left upon him by a coroner's investigation, from the hint that still retained In the recommendation of the grand Jury that the murder of Slssle Larsen be looked Into further. Nor could It remove the stigma of the fur charges against Harry, which oon were to come to trial, and without with-out a bit of evidence to combat them. Riches could do much but they could nflt aid In that particular, end somewhat some-what sobered by the knowledge, Fair-otfia Fair-otfia turned from the main road and S up through the high-piled snow to the mouth of the Blue Poppy mine. A faint acrid odor struck his nostrils nos-trils as he started to descend the abaft the "perfume" of exploded dynamite, and It sent anew Into Fatr-ohlld's Fatr-ohlld's heart the excitement and In-tnjKty In-tnjKty cf the strike, Evidently Harry iad ihe deep hole, and now, there f? tba chamber, was examining the Jtesnjt, which must, by this time, give seme Idea of the extent of the ore and . the width f the vein. A moment more and he had reached the bottom, to leap from the carrier, light his car-Vide car-Vide lamp which hung where he had left tt en the timbers, and start forward. for-ward. The odor grew heavier. ! Fairchild hejd his light before him and looked far ahead, wondering why he could tK& see the gleam from Harry's lamp. Ha shouted. There was no answer, and be went on. Firty feet! Seventy-five feet I Then he stepped short with a gasp. Twisted end torn before him were the timbers qf the tunnel, while muck and refuse lay everywhere, A cave-in another cve-la at almost the exact spot . where the one had occurred yean be- Will You Put It Through for Me?" nounced. "It takes a six-foot hole to reach U, and we can have the whole story by morning. Let's goT Along the great length of the foot wall, extending all the distance of the big chamber, the men began their work, five men to the drills and as many to the sledges, as they started their double-Jacking. Midnight came, the first of the six-foot drills sank to its nltlmate depth. Then the second and third and fourth ; finally the fifth. "you can see the silver sticking out I caught sight of a couple of pencil threads of It In one or two of those samples. All right Boy!" he turned to Fairchild. "What was that bargain we made?" 'It" was based ou two hundred dol-lars-a-ton' ore. This jiay run above or below. But whatever It Is, I'll sell all you can handle for the next three days at fifty dollars- a ton under the assay price." "You've said the word. The trucks will be here In an hour If we have to shovel a path all the way up Kentucky Ken-tucky gulch." He hurried away then, while fair-child fair-child and the men followed him Into town and to their breakfast. Then, recruiting a new gang on the promise of payment at the end of their three-day three-day shift Fairchild went back to the mine. But the word had spread, and others were there before him. Already fifteen or twenty miners were assembled about the opening of the Blue Poppy tunnel, awaiting permission per-mission to enter, the usual rush upon a lucky mine to view Its riches. Behind Be-hind him, Fairchild could see others coming from Ohadl to take a look at the new strike, and his heart bounded with happiness tinged with sorrow. Harry was not there to enjot It all. Harry was gone, and In spite of hl every effort, Fairchild had failed to find blm. Borne one brushed against him, and there came a slight tug at his coat. Fairchild looked downward te see passing the form of Anita Richmond. A moment later she looked toward Mm, but In her eyes there was no I'gHt of recognition, nothing to Indicate that she had Just given him a signal of greeting and congratulation. And yet Fairchild felt that she had. Then, ah-enfly, ah-enfly, he pot Mi hn into bh pocket. Something there caused his heart to halt momentarily a piece of paper. He crumpled It In his hand, be rubbed his fingers over It wonderlngly; It had not been In his pocket before she Iia1 passed blm. Hurriedly he walked to the far side of the chamber and there, pretending to examine a bit of ore brought the missive from Its place of secretion, to unfold It with trembling fingers, then to stare at the words which showed before him: They moved on. Hours more of work, and the operation had been repeated. The workmen hurried for the powder house, far down the drift, by the shaft, lugging back In their pockets the yellow, yel-low, candle-l!ke . rtlcks of dynamite, with their waxy wrappers and their gelatinous contents, together with fuses and caps. Crimping nippers the Inevitable accompaniment of a miner came forth from the pockets of the men. Careful tamping, then the men took their places at the fuses. "Give the word!" one of them announced an-nounced crisply as he turned to Fair-child. Fair-child. "F.aeh of usll light one of these things, and then I say we'll run ! Because this la going to be some explosion ex-plosion V Fairchild smiled the smile of a man whose heart Is thumping at Its maximum maxi-mum speed. Before him In the long line of the foot wall were ten holes, "uptimes," "downs" and "swimmers," attacking the hidden ore In every direction. di-rection. Ten boles drilled six feet Into the rock and tamped with double churges of dynamite. He straightened. straight-ened. "All right nient Ready f "Ready I" "Touch 'era off!" The carbide lamps were held close to the fuses for a second. Soon they But morning found him awake long before the rest of the house was stirring. stir-ring. The first workers on the street that morning found Fairchild offering them six dollars a day. And by eight o'clock, ten of them were at work In the drift of the Blue Poppy mine, working against time that they might repair the damage which had been caused by the cave-In. That day and the next and the next after that they labored. Then Fair-child Fair-child glanced at the progress that was being made and sought out the pseudo-foreman. pseudo-foreman. "Will It be finished by night r he asked. "Easily." "Very well. I may need these men to work on a day and night ahlft I'm not sure. I'll be back In an hour." Away he went and up the shaft to travel as swiftly as possible through the drift-plied road down Kentucky gulch and to the Sampler. There he sought out old Undertaker Chnstlne, and with him went to the proprietor. "My name Is Fairchild, and I'm In trouble," he said candidly. "I've brought Mr. Chastlne with me becuuse be assayed some of my ore a few days ago nnd believes be knows what It la worth. Tm working against time to get five thousand dollars. If I can produce ore that runs two hundred gulch and to the Sampler. But Harry bad not been there. He went through town, asking questions, striving his best to shield his anxiety, cloaking his queries under the cover of cursory remarks. re-marks. Harry had not been seen. At last with the coming of night, he turned toward the boarding house, and on his arrival. Mother Howard, sighting sight-ing his white face, hurried to blm. "Have you seen Harry V he asked. "No he hasn't been here." It was the last chance. Clutching fear at his heart, he told Mother How-ard How-ard ef the happenings at the mine, quickly, as plainly as possible. Then once more he went forth, to retrace his steps to the Blue Poppy, to buck the wind end the fine snow and the high, plied drifts, and to go below. But the surroundings were the same: still the cave-In, with Its small hole where he had torn through It, still the ragged rag-ged hanging wall where Harry had fired the last shots of dynamite In his Investigations, still the trampled bit of fuse with Its cap attached. Nothing Noth-ing more. Back Into the black nlht. with the winds whistling threugh the pines. Back to wandering aout through the hills, hurrying forward at the sight of every faint, dark object against A Cave-In! "Squint Rodalne Is terribly worried about something. Has been on an awful aw-ful rampage all morning. Something critical Is brewing, but I don't know what. Suggfest you keep watch on him. Please destroy this." That was all. There was no slgnn. ture. But Robert Fairchild hnd seen the writing of Anita Richmond once before ! (TO BE CONTINUED) were all going, spitting lie so many venomous, angry serpents but neither Fairchild nor the miners had stopped to watch. They were running as hard as possible for the shaft and for the protection that distance might give. A wait that seemed ages. Then: "One!" "And two and three!" "There goes four and five they went together!" "Six seven elfc-ht nine " Again a wait, while they looked at me another with vacuous eyes. A long Interval until the tenth. "Two went together licn! I thought j we'd counted nine?' Hie fnreiniin stared, and fairchild studied. Then Ma face lighted. "Kleven's rlidit. One .,f them mu.n have set off the charge that Harry left j n there. All the better It give n kt that much more of a chunce." ! Back they went along the drift tun ' dollars to the ton, and If I'll sell It to you for one hundred seventy-five dollars dol-lars a ton until I can get the money I need, provided I can :et the permission per-mission of the court-r-wlll you put it through f( me?" The Samper owner smiled. "If you'll let me see where you rs getting the ore." Then be flgursd a moment. "Thafd be thirty or forty ton." came at Inst "We could handle that as fast as you could bring It In liere." f ' a new thought had strnck Fuir child a new necessity for money. "I ll give It to you for one hundred and fifty dollars a ton, providing yon do the hauling and lenJ me enough :if(cr the first day or so to pay my tiierv," But hy all the excitement auU i he rush?" the snow. In the hope that Harry, crippled by the cave-In, might have some way gotten out of the shaft. But they were only boulders or logs or stumps of trees. At midnight Fairchild turned once more toward town snd to the boarding house. But Harry had not appeared. There was only one thing left to do. This time, when Fairchild left Mother Howard's, his steps did not lead him toward Kentucky gulch. In-! In-! stead he kept straight on np the street, pant the little line of store buildings and to the courthouse, where he sought out the sole remaining light In the bleak, black utiild.ng -Sheriff Bardwell's oflice. Tlmt personage was nodding In his chair, but removed his f-et from the desk and turned diow -'A? as Fairchild catered. tr abutting off the chamber from coutmunication with the shaft, tearing and rending the new timbers which liad been placed there nnd Imprison-inft Imprison-inft Harry behind them I FnlrAlld shouted again and again, oiJy gaining for bis answer the ghostlike ghost-like flchoea of his own voice as they traveled to the shaft and were thrown tack agtdn. He tore off his coat and -$Ji, and attacked the timbers like the ffSr-maddcned man he was, dragging ttan by superhuman force out of the wf end cjr-nrlng a path to the refuse. Hour pafwed, while the sweat l.ourcd from fits forehead cd his k1.8 moaned tn tern- themselves we. fretn their f ; !:. 1U with the rtlttU that ., ,,, , , |
