ate Bernard Brandon had been captured and she would
have to pay a ransom for him, while she also had to suffer still further
in learning what was her father's fate, as told her by Doctor Dick.

It had been a long time since she had seen her father, the last time
when she was a little girl, and she remembered that he had left home
under a cloud, and she had never expected to see him again.

With her mother dead, and her father a fugitive wanderer, she had been
sent by her guardian, left so by the wishes of her parents, to a
Northern school, and there had had no one upon whom to lean.

At the words and tone of Doctor Dick, she nerved herself to bear the
worst; and asked calmly:

"What have you to tell me, Doctor Dick?"

"Of your father."

"You knew him?"

"Yes, for, though my senior in years, we were devoted friends."

"Have you seen him since coming West?"

"I have not; but let me tell you that, when on a scout with Buffalo
Bill, the latter was rescued by a person who was alone, and on his way
to W----. The scout had with him a prisoner, a deserter from the army
and a murderer, who had been taken here in Last Chance, and he was
taking him a prisoner to Fort Faraway, when he was attacked by a
desperado by the name of Headlight Joe and his gang.

"With his horse shot and falling upon him, Buffalo Bill would have been
killed and his prisoner rescued, but for the coming of the horseman
referred to, and who put the outlaws to flight. He gave the name of
Andrew Seldon, said nothing as to why he was in that part of the
country, or where he lived, and went on his way.

"When I came up with Buffalo Bill, and heard his story of his rescue,
and the name of his rescuer, it at once recalled my old-time friend,
and, with the scout as my companion, we later sought to find him. We
trailed him to his home, where he had dwelt with one other comrade."

"And where was that, sir?"

"In the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, Miss Seldon."

"And you found him?" eagerly asked Celeste, while the landlord and
Harding gazed at her with deepest sympathy at what they felt she must
hear.

"We found his house, or, rather, the wreck of it, for, mining under a
cliff a thousand feet in height, it had caved in upon them, burying them
beneath a mountain of red sandstone."

Celeste shuddered and covered her face with her hands, but very quickly
regained her composure, and said:

"Are you sure that my father was in the mine when it caved in?"