n voice?"

"I do, and at any rate I am going to see. There! Hear it?"

Again came the shrill cry, echoing from the rocky walls. "Help! For
God's sake, don't leave us here to perish!"

At the sound Peveril sprang forward, and the major tremblingly
followed him.

Back in the gloom, a hundred yards from where they had halted, they
came upon a scene that neither will ever forget so long as he lives.

A slender youth and a white-haired man stood clinging to each other,
and gazing with wildly incredulous eyes at the advancing lights.

"It is Richard Peveril, father! Oh, thank God! Thank God, sir, that
you have come in time!" cried the younger of the two.

"Richard Peveril?" repeated the old man, huskily. "No, no, Mary! It
can't be! It must not be! Richard Peveril is dead, and the contract is
void. He has no claim on the Copper Princess. It is all mine. Mine and
yours. But don't let him know. Keep the secret for one week
longer--only one little week--then you may tell it to the world."

CHAPTER XXVI

FIRST NEWS OF THE COPPER PRINCESS

When Peveril made his miraculous escape from the old mine, he left his
place of exit open. In his impatience to get away from the scene of
his sufferings, he had not even given another thought to the great
stone slab that he had raised with such difficulty and precariously
propped into position by a few fragments of rock. So the narrow
passage leading down from the cavern into the ancient workings that
had been so carefully concealed for centuries was at length open to
the inspection of any who should happen that way. Thus it remained
during the day of exciting incidents in the cavern, and through the
struggle that was ended by the smugglers bearing Peveril away captive
to their schooner.

Having thus disposed of the person whom of all in the world he most
dreaded, and placed him where it was apparently impossible for him to
make a claim on the Copper Princess before the expiration of the term
of contract, Ralph Darrell rejoined his daughter.

She, noting his excitement and fearing to increase it, made no mention
of her own encounter with the other stranger, whose presence in the
cavern seemed to have escaped her father's notice. So they only
talked of Peveril; and the girl, picturing him as he had appeared on
the several occasions of their meeting, wondered if he could really be
trying to rob them of their slender possessions, as her father
claimed.

The latter talked so