h renewed
energy.

"Joe, stay here by your master and this poor fellow; and occasionally
wet their lips with this brandy and water, while I go and see to the
clearing out of the vault," said Captain Pendleton; and leaving Joe in
charge of the wounded men, he followed the workmen to the ruins to urge
them to the greatest expedition, adding as a reason for haste:

"It is time that Mr. Berners and Munson should be taken to my house, and
placed in bed, to receive proper medical attention. But I cannot consent
to leave this spot even to attend to them, until I find out whether the
body of Mrs. Berners is really under the ruins."

Thus exhorted, the men worked with tremendous energy, and soon dug away
all the pile of rubbish, and laid the depths of the vault open to the
torch light. But there was nothing to be seen but the damp and slimy
walls and floor, and the little heaps of broken stones and fallen
plaster in the corners.

"Not there! Well, then, I didn't know whether I was a-hoping or a
fearing to find her there, or whether I'm glad or sorry now at not
finding her there," said Joe, who in his excessive anxiety had at length
deserted his post beside the wounded men, and hobbled up to the opened
vault.

"You should be glad, for now you have no evidence of her death; but, on
the other hand, good reason to hope that she is somewhere alive and
well," said Captain Pendleton.

"That's so too, Marster Capping. But only see what a little story-teller
Nelly is!"

"It was her master she scented, and she found him."

"Yes, but she tried to make me believe as her mistess was down there
also. And look how she sticks to the story! There she is down there
still running round and round like she was crazy, and a snuffing at all
the corners!"

"Never mind Nelly, Joe. Come along now. We must take your master and the
other poor fellow on to my house. It should have been done before this.
I am sorry for this delay, which has been so fruitless," said Captain
Pendleton, as he led the way back to the spot where he had left the
injured victims of the explosion.

"Marster Capping," said Joe, as he hobbled after Pendleton, "I have got
two horses tied up there into the woods, ef they haven't been frighted
at the blowing up, and done broke loose; and I have got a wagon down by
the roadside, if so be as you would like to convey my wounded marster
and the t'other gemplan that a way."

"No, Joe; the jolting of a wagon might be fatal to th