incoherently of a conspiracy, a contract, and of
the great wealth that would be theirs in one week from that time, that
she was completely bewildered, and for the first time in her life
began to wonder if her papa knew exactly what he was saying.

Thus thinking, she soothed him as best she could, and finally
succeeded in getting him off to bed; but in the morning the subject
was again uppermost in his mind, and he would talk of nothing else.
Now he wondered how Peveril could have found his way into the cavern;
and as Mary was also very curious on that point, she willingly
accompanied him on a tour of investigation.

In this search it was not long before they discovered the upraised
stone slab at the rear end of the cavern, and peered curiously into
the black passage beneath it, which from the very first Ralph Darrell
was determined to explore.

"It is a part of our own mine," he said, "and so I must find out all
about it. There is no danger, for I can go very carefully, and return
when I please. I must go, though, for it is clearly my duty to do so.
Who knows but what I may strike another vein down there, as valuable
as the one we are already working. So, dear, do you wait here, and I
will come back to you very shortly."

But brave Mary Darrell would not agree to any such proposition, and
declared that if her father insisted on going into that horrid place
she should follow him.

So the old man and the girl--the former filled with eager curiosity
and the latter with a premonition of danger--crept under the great
slab and entered the sloping passage. They had but a single candle
with them, and of this Mary was glad, for she knew it would limit
their exploration and compel a speedy return.

Both of them being of much slighter frame than Peveril, they found
little difficulty in slipping through the passage and reaching the
ancient workings to which it led. Here Darrell began to find copper,
and went into ecstasies over its richness.

Forgetful of everything else, he pushed eagerly forward from one pile
of the valuable metal to another, and Mary, inspired by his
enthusiasm, almost forgot her dread of the gloomy place in which so
much wealth was stored. So absorbed were they that neither of them
paid any attention to a dull sound, as of some heavy body falling,
that came from a distance.

Finally, their candle burning low warned them to hasten their return;
but to their consternation, when they again reached the e