t had happened. His aunt had grown very much worse Friday
night, and had died early Saturday morning. He hastened home to do what
he could and to comfort his mother.

CHAPTER XIV

The Opened Door

It was nearly Thanksgiving time, and it seemed months to Willis since he
had been to Buffalo Roost. Mrs. Thornton had almost decided to return to
her father's since the death of her sister, but Willis had objected
seriously. He was determined to unravel the mine mystery before they
left. They were still living at the Williams's home, but they saw very
little of the uncle. The death of his wife had been a severe blow to him,
and he had been spending long periods of time in the mountains--no one
seemed to know just where.

During Thanksgiving vacation Mr. Allen was going to have a three days'
camp at the Roost, so Ham and Willis were planning on making a
preliminary trip, to find out how deep the snow was and just what
condition the canyon was in.

The circus was over, and had been a big success; enough money had been
raised to pay all the debts and leave a nice amount for future
improvements. Meanwhile Ham and Willis had become inseparable companions,
so much so, that Willis had taken him into the mystery of his father's
mine. Very often they had talked it over together, but neither had yet
arrived at any satisfactory conclusions. The day chosen for their trip
turned out to be bitter cold; but the other fellows were depending on
them, and they must not fail. They found it very difficult to climb
the hogsback because of the snow, so when they reached the railroad they
decided to follow it to Fairview rather than attempt the canyon trail. As
they plodded on they grew very cold.

"There is a dandy little pile of pitch-pine shavings on the hearth," said
Ham; "it won't take long to get a fire. We'll play a joke on this cold
snap yet, when we get inside the cabin." The walking was not bad until
they reached the crest, but here the trail lay on the south side and
was completely filled with snow. Many of the drifts were shoulder-deep,
so it took them nearly an hour to force their way from the ridge to the
cabin. Ham, to his surprise, had great difficulty in opening the lock; it
was evident that it had been tampered with. As they entered, he noticed
that his little pile of shavings were gone from the hearth. Some one had
been inside!

How much heat it seemed to take that night to warm that frigid air! They
piled in the