e same durance as Halloway
himself--and when he breathed the outer air it was with a deep-drawn
sigh of relief for delivery out of peril.

When he had established connection with O'Keefe and had given him the
main facts, withholding, however, his sources of information, he said:
"We must get Halloway free before we start."

"Like hell we must!" exploded Jerry. "So long es he lays thar they'll
figger they've done fooled us an' beat us. Ef we take him out, thar'll
be men in ther la'rel all the way we've got ter go, pickin' us off in
ther dark."

"You're right," assented Brent, "but he's been there all day, I guess."

"Wa'al then a leetle more hain't goin' ter hurt him none."

Fifteen minutes later, leaving separately but timed to come to a
rendezvous near the point of attack a good dozen men were on the trail
to the Gap.

Through wet and chilly thickets O'Keefe led Brent at a gait that made
his heart pound. There was a battle-joy in the mountaineer's eyes and
in them too, was something else inspired by certain dreams of the girl
he had seen only once and whom he had told himself he meant to marry.

Over broken gulches, along precipitous paths he led the way buoyantly
and now and then he broke into low almost inaudible crooning of an
ancient love song.

Vainly the crew of highwaymen in the mine awaited the arrival of the
seeming rescuer who was to take their captive off their hands and
relieve them of the necessity of murder. It had been understood that
Jase was to employ only a few attackers in the accomplishment of this
knightly deed. Few men could be spared from other duties, and the
smaller the force which he led to victory the more lustrous would be
his glory of achievement. There was to be a great deal of shooting and
shouting through the narrow entrance to the place--and the exaggerating
echoes of the rocky confines would multiply it into a convincing din of
battle.

The alleged Ku-Klux clansmen would fight their way out, leaving their
prisoner behind--and in the confusion--but not until then--the
saddle-bags would disappear.

It was all very simple, and prettily adjusted, but the difficulty was
that Jase had failed to arrive and the act was lagging without its
climax.

He failed because of unforeseen events. Pending the cue for his
entrance he and his fellow heroes were being employed as sentries
guarding the approaches to the place against invasion by outsiders.

Jase himself had for sever