cliff house,
Carmena stopped before an entrance that had been closed with a door of
heavy planks. The thick iron hasp was secured with a big padlock.

Carmena handed her candle to Lennon and took a key from her basket.

"Oh, Mena!" whispered Elsie. "Oh, you can't be going to--to---- You know
how angry Dad--and Slade----"

For answer, Carmena thrust the key into the padlock.

CHAPTER X

THE SETTER OF TRAPS

The unlocked door squeaked shrilly on its hinges as it swung in before
the heave of Carmena's shoulder. Elsie peeped fearfully back past
Lennon. Carmena pushed on into the secret room.

Lennon had expected to see some kind of treasure chamber. He stared
blankly at the big object in the centre of the room--a complex object
that somehow reminded him of his laboratory experiments in college. A
step nearer, with his own and Carmena's candles upraised, gave him a
clear view of the bulging copper boiler, the tubes and worm and
fermenting vats. The air of the room was pervaded with a sour smell.

At his exclamation Carmena gave him a sombre glance.

"You see now?"

"A still," he said. "This tizwin you've been talking about--it's
moonshine whiskey. Your father----"

"No--Slade!" broke in the girl with passionate emphasis. "He brought the
thing into the Hole and forced Dad to run it. He's the one to
blame--not Dad. He bootlegs it to the Indians."

"Indians? That's a Federal penitentiary offense!"

"What could we do? If he's convicted, he'll swear that Dad is just as
guilty. You see why I couldn't go for the sheriff?"

"Yes," said Lennon; but he looked at Elsie.

Carmena's face whitened.

"If it hadn't been for Dad, there's no telling what Cochise would have
done with her. Anyhow, he's my father."

To this Lennon could make no answer. He turned again to stare at the big
still. Fuel had been placed in the firebox, ready for lighting. Carmena
knelt down before it and dipped her hand into the Indian basket. One
after the other, she laid out the six sticks of dynamite and the caps
and fuses that she had saved from Lennon's prospecting outfit.

She looked up at him, gravely expectant.

"You said you'd help us, Jack. I want this whole thing fixed so it will
never make another drop of poison."

"At once?"

"No. They'd be sure we did it, and I figure---- Can you fix it so it
will go off a quarter minute after the fire is lighted?"

"Oh-h, Mena!" cried Elsie. "What you going to do? You know Dad alway