ing
close to the cellar of the very house in which he dwelt, he decided to
use it as a receptacle and hiding-place for smuggled goods. To enhance
its value for this purpose, he connected it with his own residence by
an underground passage. On this he expended a vast amount of labor,
digging it with his own hands, and holding it a secret from every
human being. Even the smugglers, who implicitly obeyed his orders,
since he had made it so profitable for them to do so, knew nothing of
it, nor what became of their goods after they were delivered at night
on a certain rocky ledge, and hoisted up the face of the cliff to some
place that they never saw. Nor were the peddlers, by whom these same
goods were carried far and wide, any wiser, for they always transacted
their business with "old man" Darrell, and received their merchandise
after dark, in a certain room of his house, the only one they were
ever allowed to enter.

Not only had Darrell retained to himself the secret of the cavern, but
he had also conceived the idea of hiding it from the observation of
passing vessels by means of a canvas screen drawn over its entrance,
and cleverly painted to resemble the adjacent cliffs.

Surrounded by these safeguards, and further protected by its locality
in that desolate region, the unlawful business flourished amazingly.
It not only yielded its chief promoter a sufficient income to support
his family comfortably in their distant Eastern home and enable him to
keep his mining-plant in good repair, but each year saw a very tidy
surplus stored away for the future development of the Copper Princess.

Darrell had learned of his partner's death, and waited anxiously for
years to hear from the Peveril heirs. As they remained silent, and
made no claim against the property in which his own life was so
completely bound up, he cherished the belief that they considered it
too worthless even to investigate, and that he would be left in
undisturbed possession to the end. He became so emboldened by this
belief that, when the term of contract had so nearly expired that it
had but a few months more to run, he even began in a small way to
resume work in the mine. Thus he had it pumped out and partially
retimbered. He also started work on a new level, and in every way
possible, without attracting too much attention, got his property
ready for the great scheme of development upon which he was determined
the moment he should be freed from his contra