how a settlement beyond Padre Filippo's highest hopes. No child was
employed in the mines, neither were the women allowed to work outside
their huts and plots of ground. They might dig and plant the soil, but
they were barred out of the mines. With the elimination of the refining
vats and the reduction of the scorching heat, and with the presence of
moisture from the steam and water required in the new mining, conditions
became favorable for luxuriant vegetation.

Besides, Derby had received by cable approval of certain quixotic
measures: Each family was given a milk goat. The houses were furnished
with cook stoves, beds, chairs, and tables. And although it would be
some time before "Little Devil" would seem inappropriate as a name, less
than three weeks had passed when Derby, sitting in the tent which served
as his office, felt a real thrill as he footed up assets and
liabilities. One well had been sunk, and the boilers and engines needed
to operate it were going full blast. The scaffoldings for two more were
nearly up.

In the doorway near him Porter lounged, drawing a picture of Padre
Filippo, who, in turn, was writing on his knees, his fine penmanship
covering page after page--all about the miracles of the Americano, and
addressed to the archbishop.

But his Eminence needed no letters from Padre Filippo to announce
miracles, since a miracle had happened in his own house--a marvel that
had made Marianna cross her hands in speechless wonder. The new lamp
burned on the table, the green reading shade reflected almost as much
light on the page as the sun itself, and His Eminence might now read any
book he pleased. The archbishop thoughtfully stroked the cat that lay
curled on his lap.

"It is not in this world," he mused, "that we shall journey, thou and I,
to the land of the Americanos, the miracle workers; but assuredly the
Santa Vergine sent the young Signore Americano to bless our people with
his miracles--even as he has sent this one to thee and me."

But beyond the bright radius of the good archbishop's lamp a figure
waited and watched in the darkness--the figure of a man with a sinister
face and across it a mouth that looked like a seam.

CHAPTER XXII

BEFORE DAYLIGHT

In the purple dawn of a morning two or three days later, Derby emerged
from the house of Donna Marcella, saddled his horse and for the first
time without his attendant _carabinieri_, started for the mines. The
faint light showed hi