ted so long caverned in the earth but a
hand-reach away, as it were, his wrongs had taken a new manifestation in
him, and the thing that kept crying out in him every moment was, Where is
Marcile?

It was four o'clock when they reached the pass which only Grassette knew,
the secret way into the Gulch. There was two hours' walking through the
thick, primeval woods, where few had ever been, except the ancient tribes
which had once lorded it here; then came a sudden drop into the earth, a
short travel through a dim cave, and afterward a sheer wall of stone
enclosing a ravine where the rocks on either side nearly met overhead.

Here Grassette gave the signal to shout aloud, and the voice of the
Sheriff called out: "Hello, Bignold! Hello! Hello, Bignold! Are you
there?--Hello!" His voice rang out clear and piercing, and then came a
silence--a long, anxious silence. Again the voice rang out: "Hello!
Hello-o-o! Bignold! Bigno-o-ld!"

They strained their ears. Grassette was flat on the ground, his ear to the
earth. Suddenly he got to his feet, his face set, his eyes glittering.

"He is there beyon'--I hear him," he said, pointing farther down the
Gulch. "Water--he is near it."

"We heard nothing," said the Sheriff--"not a sound."

"I hear ver' good. He is alive. I hear him--so," responded Grassette; and
his face had a strange, fixed look which the others interpreted to be
agitation at the thought that he had saved his own life by finding
Bignold--and alive; which would put his own salvation beyond doubt.

He broke away from them and hurried down the Gulch. The others followed
hard after, the Sheriff and the warders close behind; but he outstripped
them.

Suddenly he stopped and stood still, looking at something on the ground.
They saw him lean forward and his hands stretched out with a fierce
gesture. It was the attitude of a wild animal ready to spring.

They were beside him in an instant, and saw at his feet Bignold worn to a
skeleton, with eyes starting from his head and fixed on Grassette in agony
and stark fear.

The Sheriff stooped to lift Bignold up, but Grassette waved them back with
a fierce gesture, standing over the dying man.

"He spoil my home. He break me--I have my bill to settle here," he said,
in a voice hoarse and harsh. "It is so? It is so--eh? Spik!" he said to
Bignold.

"Yes," came feebly from the shrivelled lips. "Water! Water!" the wretched
man gasped. "I'm dying!"

A sudden change came ove