nto the sheriff's ear. He hung up the receiver. "Blocked," he
said shortly. "The wire 's down. Three or four poles fell from the
force of the storm. Can't get in there before morning."

"But there 's the telegraph!"

"It 'd take half an hour to get the operator out of bed--office is
closed. Nope. We 'll take the short cut. And we 'll beat him there
by a half-hour!"

Anita started.

"You mean the Argonaut tunnel?"

"Yes. Call up there and tell them to get a motor ready for us to shoot
straight through. We can make it at thirty miles an hour, and the skip
in the Reunion Mine will get us to the surface in five minutes. The
tunnel ends sixteen hundred feet underground, about a thousand feet
from Center City," he explained, as he noted Fairchild's wondering
gaze. "You stay here. We 've got to wait for those prisoners--and
lock 'em up. I 'll be getting my car warmed up to take us to the
tunnel."

Anita already was at the 'phone, and Fairchild sank into a chair,
watching her with luminous eyes. The world was becoming brighter; it
might be night, with a blizzard blowing, to every one else,--but to
Fairchild the sun was shining as it never had shone before. A thumping
sound came from without. Harry entered with his two charges, followed
shortly by Bardwell, the sheriff, while just beneath the office window
a motor roared in the process of "warming up." The sheriff looked from
one to the other of the two men.

"These people have made charges against you," he said shortly. "I want
to know a little more about them before I go any farther. They say you
've been high-jacking."

Taylor Bill nodded in the affirmative.

"And that you robbed the Old Times dance and framed the evidence
against this big Cornishman?"

Taylor Bill scraped a foot on the floor.

"It's true. Squint Rodaine wanted me to do it. He 'd been trying for
thirty years to get that Blue Poppy mine. There was some kind of a
mix-up away back there that I did n't know much about--fact is, I did
n't know anything. The Silver Queen didn't amount to much and when
demonetization set in, I quit--you 'll remember, Sheriff--and went
away. I 'd worked for Squint before, and when I came back a couple of
years ago, I naturally went to him for a job again. Then he put this
proposition up to me at ten dollars a day and ten per cent. It looked
too good to be turned down."

"How about you?" Bardwell faced Blindeye. The sandy lashes blinked
an