the other way! But he can't get out! Right
about!"

Retracing their steps they had to proceed more cautiously, but they soon
caught sight of the figure ahead, now lost, now reappearing.

"It is that blackhearted villain, who has hounded us!" cried Eldon.
"On! on!"

But the guide, true to his calling, shouted:

"Surrender, or you are a dead man! The Bottomless Pit is right ahead
of you."

The fugitive halted a moment, glanced back, then dashed on again in
defiance. At a sudden projection he tripped and fell, discharging the
pistol into his own body. The sound reverberated in a thousand echoes.
The wounded man staggered to his feet, and managed to gain the frail
bridge. Here he fell across the railing, swayed there an instant; then
as his pursuers came up with helping hands, he plunged into the abyss
below.

* * * * *

The denizens of Cave City never tire of telling how Eldon Brand and
his wife came back to the world, and how they fared in their romantic
retreat. But there was a part of the story as strange as it was
tragic. Upon dismantling the boudoir a leathern girdle was found,
which contained several hundred dollars in gold, and a letter which
ran thus:--

"I am a dying man. I cannot find my way out. I have not strength to
call, I must perish here of disease and want. I will make one more
effort, but feel that I shall fail. I have made my peace with God.
In leaving this world I leave only one enemy behind. This is Jason
Hammond, who has wronged me foully. Living or dead, I shall haunt
him. To whomsoever shall give this poor body Christian burial,
I bequeath my estate." (Here followed the location and description
of the property).

"Signed:

"DAVID HAMMOND."

The paper was almost illegible. It had been written in pencil. An
extended search was made and the skeleton of a man was found in one of
the most inaccessible recesses of the cave's many turnings. Beside the
body lay a torch and an exhausted lunch basket. Eldon Brand had the
remains reverently committed to earth.

The village gossips love to dwell upon the happiness of the brave young
lovers, of the restoration of the gray-haired father to his old home in
honor and in plenty, and of the blooming lads and lassies that sprang up
as time passed tenderly over the heads of the reunited household.

A REVERIE

The twilight falls in gloom;
All day the fitful sun and sparkling show'r